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Rehabilitation of ex-militants: A disturbing report | | | EARLY TIMES REPORT JAMMU, July 27: The Jammu and Kashmir Government has urged the Union Government to permit it rehabilitate over "20, 000 former militants who have been without any income after serving their jail sentences." The State Government wants these ex-militants to be "trained in various fields under a special programme and later absorbed in Public Sector Undertakings." It is not a rumour. Nor is it a figment of imagination. It is an authentic report. Actually, it is a PTI report and it emanated from Srinagar on Sunday (July 25). Since it is a PTI report, it cannot be dismissed as something silly and untrustworthy. What does the report say? The report, among other things, says: "The State Government has been regularly writing to the Centre for an employment package for these youths whose number is between 20,000 to 25,000" and that "If there can be an employment scheme for surrendered militants, then why not for these ex-militants…?" What is the basic argument of the State Government? According to this disturbing PTI report, the rehabilitation of the ex-militants is imperative because "they become easy fodder for anti-national elements - as is evident from the recent arrest of three youths in Jawahar Nagar in the city (Srinagar) who were running the back-end office for Masarat Alam, an active member of hard-line Hurriyat Conference led by Syed Ali Shah Geelani." The PTI report also says: "Mohammed Sadiq Lone, a 35-year-old man, was arrested along with two others and what came out of his interrogation was disturbing for the police officers. Lone had become a spokesman for Alam, now absconding, and used to take instructions from alleged Pakistan-based ISI handlers of the Hurriyat Conference led by Geelani and issue press statements and coordinate with stone-pelters in various areas to enforce strikes and bandhs, officials claimed. An expert in computers, Lone, a former Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist, came out of jail last year after serving a seven- year prison term. He applied for jobs and finally got selected in the police force. He cleared the physical and written test but was not selected because of his negative verification. With a widow mother and three sisters to look after, Lone approached Alam whom he had met in jail. He promptly offered him the job with Rs 5,000 per month as salary. Today he was not only successfully running his campaign but also bombarding social networking sites including Face-book, Twitter and others with secessionist messages." The report that the State Government is persuading the Union Government to allow it to rehabilitate the so-called ex-militants, whose number runs into several thousands, at the cost of the taxpayers' money and at the cost of the educated unemployment youth is really frightening. The government says that the number of "ex-militants" ranges between 20, 000 and 25, 000. Their number could be even more and they must also be actively involved in the on-going anti-India struggle. It is obvious that these so-called ex-militants have undergone arms training with a view to fighting out the Indian State and that they are indoctrinated and trained by those whose single-point agenda is to dismember India. To say that these "ex-militants" have reformed themselves and that they are indulging in the kind of activities the PTI report hinted at just because they have no money and they have nothing else to do would be to hoodwink and mislead the authorities in New Delhi. Militants are militants and they will never reform themselves, come what may, because they have trained as such. Some of them might be lying low for certain reasons, or even as part of a well-devised strategy with a view to becoming part of state machinery and wrecking it from within. In any case, the proposal of the State Government is fraught with dangerous consequences. On the one hand, the proposal, if accepted by the Union Government, will enable the "ex-militants" to carry on their activities with the help of the hard earned Indian rupees or the taxpayers' money, and, on the other hand, will induce thousands and thousands of unemployed youth to take to the gun. The unemployed educated youth in Jammu province have been bemoaning since long, saying those who kill people, attack the police, the CRPF and the Army and indulge in anti-national activities are being given various kinds of incentives and are being rewarded, but those who are unemployed since long (and some of whom have become even overage) and organize dharnas in order to attract the attention of the authorities to their woes are being dismissed with contempt and ignored. The unemployed youth in the Jammu province, whose number runs in lakhs, do make a point when they take on the State Government and criticize its move to rehabilitate those who have only brought death and destruction and destabilized the state polity and society. It would be only appropriate to say that there are elements in the establishment who are out to strengthen the hands of the extremists by planting in the official machinery militants and separatists. Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and the Congress leadership would do well not to toy with the dangerous idea of rehabilitating militants, ex or otherwise. Similarly, New Delhi needs to reject the proposal of the State Government out-of-hand. |
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