Posted on 08/29/2003 10:38:13 AM PDT by swarthyguy
SRINAGAR, Aug 28: Prominent counter-insurgent and National Conference (NC) leader, Javed Hussain Shah, his personal security officer (PSO) and a guest have been selectively gunned down by militants who created a major media scene on occasion of the presence of the Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and the Union Home Minister L K Advani in this capital city overnight. Even as security forces managed to kill a militant, a total of 11 people, including DIG BSF Desraj, have sustained splinter injuries and gunshot wounds in the fierce armed clash.
Guns roared and blasts occurred for the whole night even as Police and security forces maintained a tight cordon around Hotel Greenway, rescued 20 persons and finally destroyed the 4-storeyed building at 0700 hours today. As already reported, two militants had launched the dare-devil action in close vicinity of the Chief Ministers official residence last evening when the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister, three more Union Cabinet Ministers and about two dozen Chief Ministers, Lt Governors and Administrators of Union Territories were in the 8th Inter-State Council meeting at Sher-e-Kashmir International Conference Centre (SKICC).
Even as it had initially appeared to be a routine Fidayeen attack on the CRPF personnel guarding the CTO complex, enquiries after the operation made it clear that it was a specific operation to eliminate the states most prominent counter-insurgent and the former NC MLC, Javed Hussain Shah. A clear security lapse coupled with Shahs own carelessness made the militants task easier. Shah, his PSO Bag Hussain of IRP 8th Bn (resident of Poonch) and his guest, namely Somnath Dhar S/o Nandlal R/o Aeshmuqam (presently Udhampur) were selectively killed. The bloodshed occurred at the office of Shahs Urdu daily, Wattan, situated on the first floor of Hotel Greenway.
After a daylong investigation, EXCELSIOR learned from well-placed official sources (who interrogated a number of eyewitnesses for several hours) that two armed militants in Police uniform appeared at the Wattan office at 1900 hours last evening. Shah, who was the printer, publisher and editor of the newspaper, was present at his office with only one PSO, namely Bag Hussain. Two more of his PSOs, provided by the Security Wing of J&K Policehead constable Mohammad Niyaz and constable Rajinder Singh of JKAP 3rd Bnwere absent.
According to the eyewitnesses, the militants in Police uniform reached straight at the newspaper office and asked Bag Hussain to reveal his identity. He instead asked them who they were. Smelling the rat, Bag Hussain cocked his carbine but the militants fired a burst of AK-56 rifle, killing him on spot. It appeared that they had conducted a survey of the building, Javed Shah and others working in his office. They selectively gunned down the real target, Javed Shah, as also a displaced Kashmiri Pandit, Somnath, who had reached here from Jammu to meet Shah.
Four Kashmiris working at Shahs office (Pervez Ahmed Wani S/o Ghulam Qadir R/o Garoora Bandipore, sub editor Roshan Lal, cameraman Firdaus Ahmed Shora R/o Dalgate and Ghulam Rabbani of Bhaderwah) besides a runner of KPS news agency, namely Shabir Ahmed Magray of Gool, were let off. Two newspaper employees, namely Mukhtar Ahmed Sheikh of Maisuma and Sajjad Ahmed Bhat of Darishkadal, sustained injuries when militants lobbed a hand grenade from the daily office over the CRPF picket.
While as one of the militants is believed to have dropped his gun and escaped alongwith over a dozen others in the resultant stampede, his accomplice occupied second floor of the building and fired intermittently on Police, CRPF and BSF personnel who immediately laid siege to the hotel building. Thereafter, exchange of gunfire continued between the holed up militant and the security forces till 0700 hours this morning. During the nightlong operation, Police and BSF rescued 20 persons, including five newspaper employees, with the help of BSF bunkers and intense covering fire.
Bullet-riddled dead bodies of Javed Shah, Bag Hussain and Somnath were evacuated in the morning. Finally the troops set the building on fire and the one-odd militant was torched to death. His charred body was recovered from the top floor debris. He was later identified as Ishtiaq Ahmed Matta S/o Ghulam Qadir Matta R/o Chhattabal. DIG Srinagar, Mohammad Amin Shah, confirmed that Police recovered the slain PSOs carbine and two AK-56 rifles from the devastated structure. He said that only one dead body of a militant had been recovered till this evening. According to him, another militant may be either dead in the debris or he may have escaped in the initial stampede.
However, DIG BSF Operations K Srinivasan told EXCELSIOR that his troops had sighted body of another militant in the debris which was yet to be recovered.
A spokesman of Al-Mansoorain militant outfit told a local news agency over telephone that two of the groups militants had launched the suicidal strike last evening. He owned Ishtiaq Ahmed Matta of Chhattabal as a member of his organisation but claimed that another militant managed to escape and reached safely back to his hideout. Mattas relatives, however, insisted that he was simply a computer engineer who was "missing" since last evening. The spokesman, Abu Shakir, said that the purpose of the militant strike was to sabotage Vajpayees peace process.
In all 11 persons, including six of J&K Police and three of BSF (including DIG Desraj) sustained injuries in the 14-hour-long drama shown live to the world by a number of television channels. Droves of mediapersons were already in Srinagar to cover the Inter-State Council meeting.
Even as authorities claimed to have rescued 20 trapped persons, relatives of the four people working at Javed Shahs newspaper office went literally mad in search of their kith and kin. None among the officials told them anything about the whereabouts of the four "missing" persons. The families had apprehension that they too had been charred in the devastating blaze. However, EXCELSIOR learned from authoritative sources that all the five newspaper employees, who were rescued from Shahs office, were whisked away to SOG Srinagar headquarters and interrogated for the whole day by two Dy SPs of J&K Police. Only one of them, namely Roshan Lal of Bandipore (presently Jammu) was allowed to talk to his relatives through telephone at 1700 hours today.
Others rescued from the cluster of three destroyed hotel buildings were briefly interrogated by sleuths of BSF intelligence at a camp in Karan Nagar. However, they were let off and allowed to return to their traumatised families.
Six newspaper offices, three hotels and over 50 other commercial centres and computer joints were destroyed in the blaze.
Javed Shahs killing, in a dare-devil operation by militants, has come as a severe psychological shock to security forces and J&K Police which had used Shah and hundreds of his surrendered militant colleagues in decisively wiping out militancy and conducting Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in 1996. In 1995, Kukka Parray and Javed Shah arranged mass surrender of militants, launched the dreaded counter-insurgent outfit, Ikhwanul Muslimoon, and helped security forces and SOG in killing hundreds of militants and other Pakistan supporters. In counter-insurgency operations, Shah was next only to Kukka Parray in the State.
Later, Parray founded his political party Awami League and became a Member of Legislative Assembly from Sumbal. Shah broke away, formed his own National Security Organisation and finally joined Dr Farooq Abdullahs National Conference. He was elected as a Member of Legislative Council and held that position for four years. With senior counter-insurgents like Fayaz Ahmed Malik alias Malik Niazi and Azad Nabi already killed, Javed Shahs death is bound to demoralise all counter-insurgents and informers of security forces in Jammu & Kashmir. Under the patronage of Police and security agencies, Shah had made a big fortune and contested three Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in south Kashmir.
Having worked in J&K Police as a constable for several years, he had taken subversive training in Pakistan and later operated as a commander with Al-Fatah Force and Ikhwanul Muslimoon. In 1999, he had launched his Urdu daily Wattan which had limited circulation. He had also compiled a book, titled Aur karwan banta gaya, over his experiences as a Policeman, a militant, a counter-insurgent and a politician. Shahs dead body was taken to his ancestral village of Nadihal, Bandipore, for burial.
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