Hurriyat Plans Agitation To Highlight Atrocities

The All Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC) has formulated a phase-wise plan to agitate against what its chairman Maulana Omar Farooq yesterday called atrocities on Kashmiris by Indian forces.

Addressing a press conference here yesterday, the APHC leaders said Mohammad Yasin Malik of the JKLF would sit on a fast unto death in New Delhi from May 12 and that the fast would continue till assurances are given by the Indian government that atrocities on women will be stopped. We can tolerate excesses on us, but not on our womenfolk. The AHPC leaders said everything is being tried to crush us and mislead the world on Kashmir. Quoting figures, the APHC leaders said one thousand eight hundred ninety seven civilians have been killed after Farooq Abdullah took over as Chief Minister and of these, one hundred and forty three were custodial killings.

The APHC has decided to observe May 12 as a black day to attract World attention toward Kashmir. Incidentally, the civil secretariat and other state government offices will start functioning from the summer capital Srinagar on May 12. It has become customary for the separatists to call for a bandh on this day every year. Replying a question, the APHC spokesman Abdul Gani Bhat said, majority of the people are with us.

Reacting to the statement of the Pak High Commissioner in India, Qazi Ashraf Jehangir, which said that there is no need to associate APHC in parleys with the Indian government, the APHC spokesman said, India and Pakistan cannot discuss Kashmir without associating Kashmiris in the dialogue.

Meanwhile, outgoing security advisor and corps commander Lt. General J S Dhillon told another press conference here yesterday that the infiltration this year is less compared to last year. The security advisor, however, did not claim that no infiltration has taken place so far. He added that the secessionists are now finding it difficult to recruit locals for their objectives as the earlier trend had died down. This was why the ISI was including foreigners to keep the movement alive. The corps commander disclosed that the foreign militants are operating in the outskirts of cities and towns and that the locals are providing the security forces all vital inputs to crush militancy. The outgoing security advisor agreed that the summer of 1997 is going to be very crucial as the civilian government would start functioning from the summer capital. Lt. General Krishen Pal has been posted as the new corps commander of 15 Corps. He will also function as the ex-officio security advisor to the state government in place of Lt. General Dhillon who goes to Army Headquarters .

in his new posting.