J-K ultras reject ceasefire offer

J-K ultras reject ceasefire offer
AGENCIES

SRINAGAR, NOV 21: Ignoring the ceasefire offered by the Centre, militants fired a rocket at a BSF headquarter and attacked a police post in the Kashmir valley since last evening injuring a police officer, police said today.

Sub-inspector Haji Ghulam Mohiuddin received gunshot wounds when militants attacked a police post at Keller in Pulwama district of South Kashmir this morning.

Militants fired a rocket at the headquarters of 84th battalion of BSF in Sopore in North Kashmir late last night which missed its target and caused no loss of life or damage to property, police said.

Militants also hurled a grenade on a security patrol at Alamgiri Bazar in downtown Srinagar last evening. However nobody was hurt in the incident, they said.

A hard-line Kashmiri group on Tuesday vowed to step up attacks in the Indian-controlled side of Kashmir during the Muslim fasting month of Ramzan, mocking the ceasefire offer by New Delhi, a Reuters report from Islamabad said.

Bakhat Zamin, chief of the Al-Bader Kashmiri group said he was launching a new offensive against the Indian military because the ceasefire offer was merely a ploy to undermine the unity of militant groups.

Kashmiri militants have rejected the ceasefire offer, terming it "mere eye-wash" to win international sympathy.

"What is Ramadan to them. They (India) are a secular government, what difference does it make to them that it is Ramadan or not," Zamin said, adding that Islam did not ban fighting during the fasting month.

Al Bader, set up in 1979 in Afghanistan to fight Soviet occupation forces, turned to the Kashmir dispute in 1988. It says more than 650 of its fighters have been killed in separatist violence in Kashmir in the last 11 years.

However, the Hurriyat Conference today described the declaration of Ramazan month ceasefire by the Centre as a "positive change" in the government's policy towards Kashmir and said it was willing to participate in any meaningful and result-oriented political process aimed at resolving the vexed issue.

The ceasefire announcement by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on Sunday "is an indicator of a positive change" in the policy of his government towards Kashmir, Hurriyat said in a statement after a three-hour long meeting of its executive committee, the separatist conglomerate's highest decision-making body.

The statement said Hurriyat was willing to hold talks with governments of India and Pakistan as also the leadership of militant groups "so that the ceasefire could be translated into a meaningful and result-oriented move."

"If the step is based on sincerity and above political gimmick and aimed at resolving the Kashmir issue, restoration of peace and prosperity ...then it is a positive change in the approach of Indian leaders," the statement said.

"Unless all attention is paid towards resolving Kashmir issue on a permanent basis, peace cannot be restored (in the state)," the umbrella organisation of 23-odd separatist groups said.

Holland-based Kashmiri separatist leader Hashim Quershi has said that restoration of peace in the volatile South Asian region is paramount and urged India and Pakistan to shelve the Kashmir issue for 20 years in order to creat a cordial atmosphere for its resolution.

"The most effective way to resolve the Kashmir issue is to put it in cold store for 20 years," Quershi, chairman of the Democratic Liberation Party, said. He was also responsible for hijacking of an Indian Airlines aircraft in 1971. Later, he was imprisoned in Pakistan for several years. He has recently expressed his willingness to return to India to stand trial in the hijacking case.

The Jammu and Kashmir welfare forum organised a peace march from Shivpora Sonawar to Lal Chowk today. The march, heavily guarded by security forces was led by militant turned politician Javid Ahmad Shah, MLC. This was the first peace rally in Srinagar after the unilateral ceasefire was announced.