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| Has New Delhi given veto power to separatists? | | Army on Bajpathri, CRPF on Kawdara camp | | ET Report
JAMMU, Dec 18: The BJP Government at the Centre has, it seems, given veto power to separatists and their supporters as far as the presence of the Army and the CRPF in Kashmir is concerned.
It was evident from the two serious developments which took place in Kashmir on Thursday. One was the announcement by the Army that it could reconsider its decision on Bajpathri as firing range. The other was the announcement by the CRPF that it has decided to close down its camp in Kawdara in the downtown area of Srinagar.
Talking to reporters on the sidelines of a function in Srinagar, General Officer Commanding (GOC) of Army's Srinagar-based 15 Corps, Lt General Satish Dua on Wednesday said the Army vacated Tosamaidan after using the place for firing range. He said: "Army does need a firing range to practice. We do need it for our training. We were looking for alternatives and Bajpathri is one of the alternatives. This (alternative) was worked between the officers of civil and military at the lower level initially. If this site is going to cause more hardships than the advantages it is going to give us, we will definitely reconsider the decision then".
The announcement came a day after the self-styled chairman of the APHC-M, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, and on Thursday J&K High Court Bar Association, Srinagar, opposed the decision that the Army will use Bajpathri as its firing range instead of Tosamaidan -- part of which was converted into "peace park" only recently, suggesting that Tosamaidan was considered by the Kashmiri separatists and certain elements in the establishment as a symbol of Indian occupation. Kashmiri separatists had described the vacation of Tosamaidain by the Army as their victory.
On Wednesday, Mirwaiz accused the J&K Government of giving "a freehand to Army to identify an alternate firing range at its will and said his "amalgam won't allow Bajpathri to become another Tosamaidan and would oppose any such move vociferously". The issue, in fact, was discussed in the Hurriyat Executive and General Council meet at its Rajbagh headquarters, Srinagar.
"We discussed the issue threadbare. Every participant expressed anger over the PDP-BJP Government's decision of giving Army a freehand to choose any place for a firing range at its will. In Kashmir, the prime land, be it forest land or meadows, are already under the illegal occupation of the Army. Now, the irony is that the Government is allowing the Army to occupy Bajpathri as an alternate firing range," Mirwaiz was quoted as saying after the end of the meting.
On Thursday, the executive members of J&K High Court Bar Association, Srinagar, took decision to oppose "through all possible means" the proposed decision of the Army authorities to use Bajpathri forest area located near Yousmarg health resort, as an alternate firing range, "as it would cause tremendous damage to the forests and will also create hardships to the local population".
"The army is already in illegal occupation of thousands and thousands Kanals of forest land and by allowing it to use Bajpathri as an alternate firing range there will be further destruction to the forests of the entire area. It would be an indirect selling of Kashmir to Indian capitalists which will change the special status and demography of the State and violate the laws which are in force," the association said while opposing the whole move on Bajpathri.
The same day, the CRPF announced that it was dismantling its camp at Kawdara in the downtown area of Srinagar. "We have set in motion a process to remove the camp set up in 1990 in Kawdara in downtown area of the city. It is an old camp and its removal is part of a policy decision, PRO CRPF Ashish Jha told a national news agency. "It is part of a routine process where the deployment of the CRPF is revised regularly. We recently removed a bunker in Tral (in Pulwama district). This is a normal procedure," he also told the news agency.
Significantly, the claim of Ashish Jha was contested by the ruling PDP, which said that the PDP-BJP coalition Government made the CRPF to remove its camp. Ruling PDP MLC and Srinagar district president of PDP Khurshid Alam reportedly claimed that "the CRPF camp was being removed under an order from the Government".
It is pertinent to mention here that the Srinagar's downtown area is the area which has been the centre of anti-India activities since decades. The CRPF set up its camp at Kawdara to check the anti-national activities in the area during the Governor’s rule. The camp played a very important role during all these 25 years.
The announcements by the Army on Bajpathri and by the CRPF on Kawdara are not normal announcements. These are very disturbing announcements, as they suggest that there are elements in the Modi Government at the Centre and the PDP-BJP Government in the State who are systematically lowering the guard in the terrorist-infested Kashmir. Many concerned citizens have expressed the view that the "BJP is pursuing a dangerous policy and things will go out of hand if the BJP is not reined in at the earliest". |
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