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Kashmir's separatist alliance divided on state's future

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December 19, 2000 

SRINAGAR, India-- (UNB/AP) - The head of Kashmir's main separatist alliance on Monday shrugged off violent clashes between its members and insisted they were united in backing India's cease-fire in the Himalayan province.

The sharp differences among leaders of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference erupted into violence for the first time on Sunday, leaving 12 people injured in the summer capital of Jammu-Kashmir state. Rival groups of slogan-shouting Hurriyat members, supporting Kashmir's independence or its merger with Pakistan, jostled, pushed and punched one another.

"It was a small incident between the boys. It was blown up as if all Kashmiris were fighting among each other," Hurriyat Chairman Abdul Ghani Bhat told The Associated Press. "Everybody had declared that the Hurriyat is divided. But it is not broken and it will never be broken."

Indian home ministry officials and analysts said they were not expecting dramatic progress in the peace efforts during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, the period for which Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee declared a military cease-fire in the disputed Kashmir Valley.

"The jury is still out. Peace is going to take its time," said Bharat Karnad, a security analyst at the independent Center for Policy Research.

Pakistan's government and the Hurriyat have welcomed the relatively successful monthlong truce that went into effect on Nov. 28, but Islamic guerrillas who rejected it have continued attacks against Indian security forces. Hurriyat leaders claim they can persuade the rebels to talk peace if allowed to go to Pakistan, where the guerrilla groups are based.

"We have applied for passports long ago but we haven't got them. We can't go begging," Bhat said. The Indian government applies travel restrictions on Hurriyat leaders, citing security risks.

In Islamabad, Amanullah Khan, the leader of the moderate Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front, urged Pakistan-based Islamic groups to stop fighting in Indian Kashmir and to limit their support to financial and material aid. Khan urged them to let Kashmiris do the fighting.

Khan said the involvement of non-Kashmiris had tainted the secessionist uprising, turning it into terrorist activity in the eyes of the international community. It had also led to sectarian violence between rival sects, he said.

"They should only support us, they should not participate," he said.

Some analysts say the Indian government has encouraged differences within the Hurriyat to islolate the hard-liners and win moderate friends within the alliance of 23 parties.

"It was a considered policy of the government to drive a wedge between the militant-minded leaders and those who could be relied upon to agree to autonomy within the Indian union," said Karnad. "The government has now succeeded."

The squabbles within Hurriyat came to an unprecedented climax Sunday when members of pro-Pakistan parties and those favoring independence began shouting slogans at one other. When Yasin Malik, one of the seven Hurriyat executives whose party wants independence, slapped a member of a pro-Pakistan party, the street skirmish broke out.

Some Indian officials have cautioned against inviting the Hurriyat Conference for talks on Kashmir's future, accusing the group of being undemocratic, sharply divided and not representing the majority Kashmiris.

The seven Hurriyat executive leaders have rejected demands to include more members from influential Kashmiri groups.

Dozens of rebel groups have been fighting Indian security forces since 1989, demanding Kashmir independence for India's only Muslim majority state, or a merger with Pakistan. India accuses Pakistan of training, arming and funding the Islamic rebels, a charge Islamabad denies.

More than 30,000 people have been killed in 11 years of fighting, according to the government, while human rights groups say at least 60,000 have died and another 2,500 are missing.