TUESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2002
Ex-militants caught in J&K crossfire
SIDDHARTH VARADARAJAN
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
SRINAGAR: Can a militant live a 'normal' life after being released from prison? More than a decade after militancy came to Kashmir, there are thousands of men who are asking the same question. Viewed with suspicion by the security forces, militant groups and civil society, some 3,000 released militants came together in May this year to form the Jammu Kashmir Salvation Movement (JKSM).
''Militants think we are informers for the security forces while the security forces think we are still helping the militants,'' said Noor-ud-din Shah, chairman of the JKSM. The Hurriyat, he said, had done nothing to ameliorate the ex-militants' plight. ''So we have come together to improve our image, stop our harassment, and play a political role towards solving the Kashmir problem.''
Most of the organisation's members are ex-militants from the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM). ''No ex-militants from groups like the Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Muhammad and al-Badr have joined us,'' said Rizwan, a former HM battalion commander who was imprisoned from 1992 to 1998. ''Quite frankly, we do not want them since their temperament is different. They say, 'To hell with your azadi, we have come here to gain martyrdom'.''
Despite virtually no released militant having taken up the gun again, the ex-militants are an obvious target for the security forces. ''If an attack takes place in an area, we are usually the first to be rounded up,'' said Shah, who has been rearrested ''10-12 times'' since serving a four-year jail term in 1997.
In addition, ex-militants have to mark regular attendance at police stations or do begar (labour) like building bunkers. Shah said that in June, an ex-militant from Hanga village near Handwara who had become a school teacher after being released from jail, died after falling off a shahtoot tree whose branches a local Army commander had asked him to cut.
But more than harassment by the security forces, it is the fear and suspicion felt by ordinary people that rankles the ex-militants most.
''We gave our best years for the cause but jobs are hard to come by,'' said Rizwan. ''We are blamed for spreading violence and parents do not like to give their daughters in marriage to an ex-militant. They feel that even if he doesn't take up the gun again, he will be arrested or killed by either the security forces or militants.'' Half the JKSM's members are still bachelors.
Rizwan said there were many reasons he did not return to militancy when he was released from jail in 1998. ''First, I had been badly tortured and so I was physically weakened. Once a militant is arrested, it is not easy to go back underground. Also, my children were growing up and I didn't want their future ruined. Finally, I felt we can do more for our case by organising politically.''
Asked whether he felt it had been a mistake to pick up the gun in the first place, Rizwan fell silent. Then he said, ''Before the gun came, people demonstrated on the streets in thousands. Now, the people are distant, I don 't see them participating. That is not a good thing''
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