The arrest of Pakistani national and Hizbul Mujahideen operative Liaquat Ali Shah on March 20, 2013, after he crossed over from Nepal along with his family, raises serious questions about the Jammu and Kashmir Government’s Surrender & Rehabilitation Policy for militants, and the Union Home Ministry’s complicity in giving free ingress to questionable characters along this sensitive border.
Islamabad’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) has long been active in Nepal and Bangladesh, but New Delhi has failed to maintain adequate vigilance on these fronts. Indian Airlines flight IC-814 was hijacked from Tribhuvan International Airport, Kathmandu, on December 24, 1999, by Pakistan-based Harkat-ul-Mujahideen; a young man was stabbed to death in the incident. The plight of the passengers ended only with the release of three militants, Mushtaq Ahmad Zargar, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, and Maulana Masood Azhar, at Kandahar, Afghanistan.
Even before this incident, the ISI was active along the 391-km Indo-Nepal border, making inroads among the population and dotting the region with mosques and madarsas to serve as bases for its anti-India operations. Drugs, guns, timber, gold, fake currency and mercenaries make their way freely across this porous frontier. Indian intelligence agencies have noted Dawood Ibrahim’s footprint in the region.
Despite the obvious dangers from Nepal, the Union Government permitted the Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister to berate the Delhi Police for arresting an alleged militant (Liaquat Ali Shah) who, Omar Abdullah claims, was returning to India to surrender under a State scheme. Even if we dispute the Delhi Police version that Shah intended to indulge in acts of terrorism in the national capital, there are blatant faults in the ‘surrender’ story.
The J&K Government’s new Rehabilitation Policy (Cabinet Decision No.32/3 dated January 31, 2004, Government Order No. Home-55/H of 2004) aims to facilitate “those terrorists who undergo a change of heart and eschew the path of violence and who also accept the integrity of India and Indian Constitution” to join the mainstream. It is applicable ONLY to terrorists amongst residents of Jammu and Kashmir who surrender with weapons or even without weapons.
The Policy does not encompass terrorists who crossed over to Pakistan for arms training, took Pakistani citizenship, married and raised families, and now seek to return to India and settle in J&K, a sensitive State where Pakistan sponsors terrorism and makes territorial claims.
The policy specifies designated places/authorities for surrender: Operational Units of Army/ BSF/ CRPF/ ITBP throughout the State (and not throughout the nation, or borders with other States); Zonal Inspectors General of Police; Range Dy. Inspectors General of Police; District Magistrates and District Superintendents of Police or Superintendent of Police, CID. If found eligible for rehabilitation, the incentive package includes immediate grant of Rs. 1.50 lakh as a bank fixed deposit to be drawn on completion of three year period and subject to good behaviour, and Rs. 2000/- as monthly stipend for three years after surrender.
Shah’s arrest and Omar Abdullah’s intemperate outburst against the Delhi Police has exposed the ugly truth that, instead of bringing militants operating within the State to give up arms and rejoin the mainstream, the National Conference-Congress coalition regime was overseeing the infiltration of Pakistani militants into the State under the cover of the rehabilitation policy. Worse, the Government of India was tacitly permitting this gross and illegal misuse of the policy.
Authorities admit that over 4000 persons with Pakistani passports have entered India via Nepal using I-cards improperly issued by the J&K Government to the while on Nepali soil; 243 arrived in just three months of 2013. This poses a serious threat to the State and the nation, as the ISI could be pushing its operatives into the country using this open door.
Legally, the State Government has no power to grant Indian citizenship to anyone, let alone such persons. Under Article 9 of the Constitution of India, “No person shall be a citizen of India by virtue of Article 5, or be deemed to be a citizen of India by virtue of Article 6 or Article 8, if he has voluntarily acquired the citizenship of any foreign State.”
The militants being helped to enter and settle in J&K thus remain Pakistani citizens; they need to reside in India for a minimum of five years before they can apply for naturalization as Indian citizens. It is unclear how former militants can be found eligible for Indian citizenship. Hence there is need to question the logic of importing known militants into India and settling them in J&K to serve as possible sleeper cells for Pakistan, whose citizenship they hold. Shah had crossed over to Pakistan 23 years ago and is now a Pakistani citizen.
When Shah and five others landed at Kathmandu Airport last week, an official of the J&K Government provided them with I-cards, but Liaquat refused to accept this ‘proof’ that he was an Indian citizen residing in J&K. This amply proves he was not willing to eschew violence or respect the Indian Constitution or accept the territorial integrity of India, and that Delhi Police was right to arrest a man without valid Indian documentation. After all, he held a Pakistani passport and had no valid visa to enter India.
Sources say that a major reason for Omar Abdullah’s diatribes against the Indian Army is its success in beating back infiltrators. Now, even if the National Intelligence Agency finds that Shah had informed the State Government of a desire to surrender in 2011, as claimed, the fact remains that Omar Abdullah had no right to extend his policy outside the borders of his State and cover Pakistani citizens. Yet the Union Home Minister is pandering to Abdullah instead of upbraiding him, though central intelligence agencies have informed him that Shah was under scrutiny since early March when he made a suspicious call from Nepal to Pakistan.
NitiCentral.com, 28 March 2013