War of words rages as separatists fight on
THE 22-year-old Kashmiri militant laid down his assault rifle, slid a 9 mm pistol and grenade from under his poncho and settled down to describe his platoon's attack the previous night on a paramilitary patrol in Srinagar, the capital of India's northern state of Kashmir.
As Captain Amjad Khan, a section commander in the Hizbul Mujahedeen, talked, six similarly armed colleagues from Kashmir's largest and best armed militant group gathered in the small house in Ikhrajpura, disregarding the Border Security Force's (BSF's) fortified bunker barely 100 metres away in central Srinagar.
After divested themselves of their weapons, including two sophisticated sniper rifles and a rocket-propelled grenade-launcher, they sat down to tea, intently listening to their commander.
One was 17 years old.
'As we fired on the three BSF Jeeps with our grenade-launcher, they fled,' said Captain Khan, who joined the Hizbul Mujahedeen soon after Kashmiri separatists launched their independence struggle five years ago. More than 12,000 people have died in the fighting and at least 16 were killed in clashes yesterday.
'We chased them through the narrow alleys on foot, firing at the retreating Jeeps, injuring at least three soldiers,' he said.
An hour later, when the soldiers returned with reinforcements to conduct a house-to-house search, the militants had hidden their arms and dispersed.
An identity parade proved futile as no one in the crowded middle-class area was willing to provide information about the militants.
By midnight, the rebels were back in their homes, celebrating yet another blow struck for Kashmir's azadi, or freedom, in India's only Muslim-majority state.
'The people are with us in our fight for azadi,' said Mumtaz, the section's military strategist and religious adviser.
Like his companions, the 26-year-old said he had been given training in weapons and explosives handling in neighbouring Pakistan, which holds a third of Kashmir and lays claim to the rest. Pakistan denies training any rebels.
'We will carry on our jihad, our holy war, to the last Kashmiri for freedom,' he said.
But security forces and locals think otherwise.
Army and paramilitary officials say militancy is on the decline.
Most Kashmiris admit they are weary of the separatist struggle, which has brought nothing but death, misery and penury since it began in 1990.
Though many still talk of independence - scared as they are of the armed separatists - Kashmiri leaders privately admit the concept has not been explained on demographic or historical grounds.
'If the concept of azadi was widespread, the Indian security forces would have faced a mass civil-disobedience movement impossible to contain,' said one political leader.
The security forces claim militancy has now been brought down to 'acceptable levels of violence'. The federal Government would be able to hold elections.
'Provided there are candidates, people will vote as they are fed up with militancy,' one officer said.
