Posted on 05/21/2002 5:41:03 PM PDT by lyonesse
Kashmir assassination intensifies war fear
by catherine philp
KASHMIR was plunged into fresh crisis yesterday with the assassination of the moderate separatist leader Abdul Gani Lone by suspected militants on the first day of the Indian Prime Minister’s emergency visit to the disputed territory. Mr Lone was shot dead by two masked gunmen as he left a rally in Srinagar marking the anniversary of the assassination of Mirwaiz Mohammed Farooq, Kashmir’s late spiritual and independence leader.
The attackers tossed a grenade towards Mr Lone as he got into his car, and when it failed to explode, one opened fire with an automatic rifle. Supporters chased the gunmen, but they both escaped.
Wailing relatives crowded round Mr Lone’s body as it was laid out in the garden of his home wrapped in a white shroud to await burial in the Martyr’s Graveyard, the resting place of hundreds of Kashmiri separatist fighters.
As the women wept and beat their heads, Mr Lone’s son, Sajad, leapt before the crowd and shouted: “This was Pakistan and the ISI (the Pakistan intelligence service) and (the separatist) Geelani that are behind this. I am not afraid, I will not rest.” He was quickly led away by relatives.
The most moderate voice in the main Kashmiri separatist grouping, the Hurriyat Conference, Mr Lone had made enemies with his calls for an end to the jihad in Kashmir and demands that Pakistani militants leave the territory. He had also been trying to open a dialogue with India to seek a peaceful solution to the Kashmiri conflict.
Passions erupted as the man accused by his son, the hardline separatist Syed Ali Shah Geelani, arrived at the wake to pay his respects to his Hurriyat colleague. He was hastily bundled away by bodyguards as followers tried to attack him, demanding that he leave.
Mr Geelani later accused India of carrying out the attack in an attempt to drive a wedge through the separatist movement. Senior Indian officials accused Pakistani militants of carrying out the attack in an attempt to silence moderate voices within the Kashmiri separatist movement. “He was working for peace and that was why he was killed,” Atal Behari Vajpayee, the Prime Minister said.
Abdul Ghani Bhat, the Hurriyat leader, paid tribute to Mr Lone as a “freedom fighter” and called on followers not to jump to early conclusions.
“We’ve lost a seasoned politician and a man who could mix his experience with political realities,” he said. “The void will be very difficult to fill, at least in the months ahead which are going to be so hard.”
The suspicion that Pakistani militants were behind the attack will fuel tensions between India and Pakistan as their armies continue detailed preparations for military action.
India has said that it may take such action if Pakistan does not stop militants from crossing into Indian-controlled Kashmir after last week’s massacre at an army camp in Jammu. Observers believe that any further large-scale militant attack could tip the conflict into war.
Indian ministers said that the Army had been asked to consult the “War Book”, a highly confidential document detailing troop mobilisation and battle plans in the run-up to past wars. The book is so secret that it is handed personally by the civilian authority to the military authority, and is usually consulted only when the Army is asked to prepare for war.
Paramilitary and coastguard units have been put under the direct control of the military, and fighter pilots began strike drills along the Rajasthan border yesterday in full view of Pakistani troops massed on the other side.
Mr Vajpayee is due to visit Srinagar today after meeting troops close to the Line of Control between Indian and Pakistani Kashmir.
He will chair a meeting of the Unified Command, the leading security council in the territory, tomorrow after talks with political parties.
Security forces in Srinagar imposed a curfew after the assassination, and extra patrols were deployed on its streets.
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