[Reader-list] Who are the killers ?

[Pawan Durani]

http://www.hindu.com/2008/09/05/stories/2008090556951200.htm

  *Strains among Kashmir secessionists reaching the breaking point *

  SRINAGAR: Strains among secessionist leaders in Jammu and Kashmir have
reached the breaking point in the wake of a wiretap operation which shows
that hardline Islamists have been lobbying terrorists for help to intimidate
their more moderate counterparts.

Tehreek-i-Hurriyat leader Masrat Alam Bhat, the August 21 police wiretap
shows, complained to the Hizb ul-Mujahideen's Pakistan-based chief that
efforts to accelerate the pace of anti-India mass mobilisation were being
sabotaged by a group of spoilers seeking dialogue with the Union government.

Jammu and Kashmir police sources said that a tape of the conversation had
been circulated to all top All Parties Hurriyat Conference leaders,
including its chairman, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq.

In the tape of the intercepted August 21 conversation, Alam — who was
arrested by the Jammu and Kashmir police after a fortnight-long hunt on
Thursday — criticises the pro-dialogue group led Mirwaiz Farooq, who he
derogatorily refers to as the "bachccha maulvi," or "baby cleric."

He also names Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front chief Yasin Malik,
identified sarcastically as "Gandhi," as another key pro-dialogue spoiler.

Some of Alam's harshest invective is reserved for the APHC's leading
pro-dialogue dove, Abdul Gani Butt. Alam asks the Hizb ul-Mujahideen chief
to "take action" against Butt, who he identifies as "tambakoowala." or "the
tobacconist," in a sardonic reference to his heavy smoking. In the evident
belief that Alam is advocating Butt's assassination, Shah replies that such
an action would discredit the Hizb ul-Mujahideen. Alam then clarified that
he wanted the Hizb ul-Mujahideen chief to ask Butt's backers in Pakistan to
exert pressure on him.

Alam praises two APHC members — People's League leader Shabbir Shah and
Jammu Kashmir National Front chief Nayeem Ahmad Khan — for supporting
Geelani and the Tehreek.

Later in the conversation, Alam claims that three members of the
pro-dialogue faction —Mirwaiz Farooq, Sajjad Lone and Malik — met with
National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan during his August 19 visit to
Srinagar. He also asserts that Lone flew to New Delhi with the NSA.

Neither allegation, highly placed government sources said, was true — but
illustrates in stark relief the levels of mistrust between the two
secessionist groups. Although the APHC has refused to comment on the
contents of the tape, informed sources in the secessionist group said that
the Alam-Shah conversation had inflamed its leadership. APHC sources said
that at a meeting at Mirwaiz Farooq's Nigeen home on Wednesday an incensed
Butt threatened to issue a public letter accusing Pakistan of harbouring
terrorists. Bilal Lone, for his part, demanded that Mirwaiz Farooq review
the APHC's alliance with the Tehreek.