The Election Interview/ Mohammed Azam Inquilabi
At first glance, he appears to be a quiet, ordinary Kashmiri. But once he begins speaking, Mohammed Azam Inquilabi comes across as an erudite academic with a remarkable command over English.
Chief of the outlawed militant outfit, Operation Balakote, and a former chairman of the United Jihad Council --- now headed by Syed Salahuddin --- Inquilabi waged a war against India from Pakistan for years. But the realisation that Pakistan wants Kashmir for its own strategic interests disillusioned him to the extent that he wants the region distanced from both New Delhi and Islamabad and craves for independence.
Led by a chain of contacts and with considerable difficulty, Chief Correspondent Tara Shankar Sahay and a couple of other reporters met Inquilabi in a quiet suburb of Srinagar.
How did you become a militant who wanted Kashmir to side with Pakistan?
I was a close associate of Maqbool Bhat, [the founder of Kashmir's armed struggle was executed in Delhi's Tihar Jail in February 1984] who was a strong votary of Kashmir's independence. He was the main protagonist for a plebiscite. But I had faith in Sheikh Abdullah who was not only a towering personality, but also the person who ensured that Kashmir stayed with India. But what did the Lion of Kashmir get in the bargain? I have no hesitation in saying that an ungrateful India ditched him and jailed him after all the services he rendered to this country.
Then India went about enslaving the people of Kashmir. Had not the Government of India eroded Article 370 of the Constitution, Kashmiris would not have picked up the gun. New Delhi began reneging on its pledges. During the 1975 Indira Gandhi-Sheikh Abdullah Accord, New Delhi told us that the clock on plebiscite could not be turned back. I wanted it to respect the political institutions in Kashmir, but it sought to destroy them one by one.
God forbid, if the Kashmir issue is not solved now, India and Pakistan will get consumed by the Agni and Ghauri missiles. It is the intransigence of New Delhi and Islamabad that is impeding any solution of this problem.
When did you first go to Pakistan?
I visited Pakistan on March 3, 1969. I kissed the soil of Azad [Pakistan-occupied] Kashmir. I spent seven years. I am wedded to Kashmiriyat (the quintessential culture of Kashmir) and later when the Indian oppression grew on Kashmiris, it was I who instigated not only the people but also the Pakistani establishment against it.
I crossed over with a Kalashnikov rifle over my shoulder. It is because Kashmiriyat is present in the people of Kashmir that the [Kashmiri Hindu] Pandits were not massacred by the Pakistani invaders in 1947. Later, when I visited Pakistan in 1983, the Muslim League was my party for a year. I was the chairman of the United Jihad Council and head of Operation Balakote.
As a militant, have you seen any 'action'?
Yes, I have dodged my way both across Pakistan and back [to India]. In 1998, [commandos of] the Rashtriya Rifles (the Indian army's elite unit deployed in Jammu & Kashmir) in my house here in Srinagar brutalised and tortured me for three days. My family was put under immense mental torture. I have been periodically writing articles in newspapers and journals about the necessity of Kashmir gaining independence. There were three murderous assaults on me at Hazratbal [by pro-Pakistani militants].
I told G M Butt, the Jamait-e-Islami chief in New Delhi, about my views on Kashmir and how the problem relating to it between India and Pakistan could be solved.
So you returned to India when you realised that Kashmir could not get independence under Pakistan?
Yes, we should solve the Kashmir problem because it has become a divided land. India and Pakistan should extricate themselves from the bogey of self-managed animosity. My message to those [within India and Pakistan] who want to annihilate me is that I am wedded to the angel of death and will strive for the independence of Kashmir till my last breath.
How, according to you, can the Kashmir problem be solved?
It is very simple. I say that for the Kashmir valley and the surrounding Muslim belt, let there be plebiscite. It must be given self-rule, its own flag, its own parliament, its own judiciary. It should have its own police. It will do trade with both India and Pakistan. Fifteen years later, there should be a referendum in a cool and calm atmosphere. By then, it will hardly matter to India.
The problem has to be solved in three phases; it cannot be done at one go. I say de-emotionalise and de-sentimentalise the J&K situation. But in a non-violent way, we will be highly assertive on Kashmir. That will satisfy my bruised and wounded soul.
Of course, the areas of defence and foreign affairs have to be jointly entrusted as both India's and Pakistan's responsibility. Neither country on its own can be trusted in this context.
Any other way?
India must start a dialogue with Pakistan because the more the delay, the more the problems will increase.
As Kashmir's leading pro-independence ideologue, how do you appraise the Indian stand on it?
New Delhi is keeping 700,000 troops deployed in J&K to stop the fight for freedom. Hardly 3,500 to 4,000 guerrillas have taken up the challenge to counter them. For those who are fond of citing the example that militancy was successfully quelled in Punjab by the Indian government, my contention is, Kashmir is not Punjab. Let India also not forget that there was no resolution for Bangladesh (when it was created following the Indo-Pak war of 1971).
What are your views on global issues like the emergence of the US as the sole superpower in the world?
The emergence of the US as the sole superpower has not proved to be a boon. I think it is unilateral totalitarianism aimed at its national aggrandisement. It is a menace. Of course, what happened on September 11 is deplorable, it's a human tragedy, but what is this selective humanism [on Washington's part]?
I think the US is hell-bent on enslaving the entire globe. I have a suggestion for President George W Bush. He should start a dialogue among various civilisations.
Where do you think the Asian nations, especially India and Pakistan, figure in the American scheme of things?
Asia contains 60 per cent of the world's population. Therefore, Asian nations like China, India, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and others must step forward to counter American arrogance and rationalise its role. Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee discussed Asian security in Singapore and it was followed up during the talks in Almaty. Despite their differences, India and Pakistan did not go to war [over Kashmir].
I think India and China should sink their differences. On the bilateral level, the two have done it, but at the multilateral level it has not been done. I am optimistic that good sense will prevail on the issue of the Asian alliance.
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