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J&K extremists out of Pakistan's control

Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi

The massacre of 36 Sikhs at Chati Singhpora village south of Srinagar has underscored how the extremists in Kashmir have gone out of even Pakistan's control.

Central government officials rejected a news report saying Islamabad may not have been involved in the carnage.

Pointing out that Pakistan has always claimed to have actively assisted the terrorists in their jehad (holy war), the officials remarked, "Islamabad has got trapped in a web of its own making."

They said even international human rights organisations had graphically depicted the brutality resorted to by the Pakistan-backed extremists who are "trigger-happy" and need little provocation to kill the minorities in Kashmir.

Union Home Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani emphasised that the massacre, "perpetrated blatantly" by the terrorists during United States President Bill Clinton's visit to India, was a sinister act designed to send the message that they are unstoppable.

The officials pointed out that reports from Chati Singhpora and the 14 adjoining villages, dominated by Sikhs, indicated that passions among the families of the victims were running high and there was talk of "retaliation". They said some young Sikhs, who reached the site of the massacre this morning, shouted slogans like "khoon ka badla khoon" (blood for blood), though others tried to pacify them.

They noted that in 1991, when terrorism in Kashmir and Punjab was at its peak, militants had gunned down a Sikh lieutenant colonel, provoking angry reactions from the Sikhs of Kupwara district, who had attacked and killed Muslims suspected of being sympathetic to the killers.

Confirming the tension in Chati Singhpora and adjoining villages, an official of the Intelligence Bureau said the authorities had beefed up security in the area.

While refusing to name the country behind the carnage, a spokesman of the external affairs ministry said, "Even General Pervez Musharraf had recently asserted that his country would never stop supporting the militants' jehad in Kashmir." This was an unambiguous statement, he noted.

Meanwhile, leading foreign policy analysts have welcomed President Bill Clinton's three "essentials" for restarting the India-Pakistan dialogue. During his joint press conference with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee at Hyderabad House, Clinton said the pre-requisites are mutual respect of the Line of Control, eschewing the military option in Kashmir, and restraint by both sides.

Speaking to a television channel, former foreign secretary J N Dixit and foreign policy analyst Kanti Bajpai said Clinton's insistence on these conditions made it obligatory for the two parties, especially Pakistan, to agree to them before their dialogue can resume.

They both felt it was a good thing for India that Clinton had recognised the ground realities in Kashmir and, indeed, the region.

The analysts also appreciated that Vajpayee had openly urged Clinton to take up the issue of crossborder terrorism with Gen Musharraf during his brief stopover in Islamabad.

CLINTON VISITS INDIA : The complete coverage

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