Thuggery kills off dwindling sympathy for militants
THE beheading of Norwegian hostage Hans Christian-Ostro and threatening to kill four other Westerners being held captive is one of the biggest blunders Kashmiri militants have made in their nearly six-years-long armed struggle for independence.
The brutal act by the little known Al-Faran has robbed the entire Kashmiri cause of international sympathy and support, revealing the militants to be nothing but ruthless killers.
It has also shocked other militant groups fighting for independence, even though they had already condemned the kidnappings in July and urged Al-Faran activists to release their hostages, unharmed.
But Al-Faran persisted and have reiterated their demand for the release of 21 jailed Kashmiri militants by today, failing which they would kill the four remaining hostages - two Britons, an American and a German.
Even the representative All Party Hurriyat Conference, comprising around 30 Kashmiri political and social groups which had successfully pleaded Kashmir's case in Western capitals, is now finding it difficult to react to Ostro's beheading.
'Distancing themselves from Al-Faran and condemning the kidnapping as un-Islamic simply does not provide the Huriyyat any credibility any more,' said a Kashmiri leader.
He said few now distinguished between the militant groups and most people were increasingly looking upon all militants as 'thugs and criminals'.
Indian intelligence and security officials, meanwhile, say killing Ostro has chilling ramifications which might prove tragic for the four remaining hostages.
They say Al-Faran guerillas are refusing to obey their 'handlers' from Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), 'running' Kashmir's civil war and are 'loose canons' operating on their own behalf.
Federal intelligence officials say Al-Faran is a 'front' for the Pakistan-backed and controlled Harkat-ul-Ansar group operating in Kashmir whose members are either Pakistani or mercenary Afghans.
Controlled by the ISI, Harkat is a well armed group which operates with a fixed agenda of maximising Kashmir's cause.
It kidnapped two Britons in Kashmir in June 1994 and four other Westerners in Delhi soon after, gaining their objective of international publicity, before releasing them.
But federal intelligence officials say Ostro's killing is an indication that the ISI has lost control of Harkat.
They say they have real fears for the surviving hostages.
For, while the ISI has a fixed agenda of internationalising Kashmir's struggle, Harkat activists are now obsessed with securing the release of their jailed comrades.
Federal Home ministry officials, meanwhile, are in no doubt about Pakistan's direct involvement.
They say the 'hero's welcome 'given recently in Pakistan to Mast Gul, an Afghan mercenary who was responsible for burning down Chara-e-Sharif, a 500-year old Muslim shrine in Kashmir after a fire fight with the Indian security forces in May, is adequate proof of Islamabad's ever-deepening guilt.
Public meetings, rallies and interviews on Pakistan's state owned television have hailed Gul as the 'hero' of Charar-e-Sharif over the past several weeks.
News reports from Islamabad say Gul has been telling his audiences in Pakistan that he wants to recruit fighters for Kashmir's battle for independence.
'If you are not fighting in Kashmir, you are not a Muslim,' he says ominously in his meetings across Pakistan.
