By the Centre:
1. Jammu & Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF)
By Jammu and Kashmir:
1. Hizb-ul-Mujahideen
2. Harkat-ul Ansar
Political Parties:
Jamaat-e-Islami, J&K is not registered with the Election Commission as a political party.
Jammu and Kashmir People's Conference is so registered... his party had also been recognised as a State party in J&K under the provisions of Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968. However, the Commission has... decided to derecognise this party as the party did not contest the last General Elections to the House of the People and J&K Legislative Assembly in 1996 and has failed to fulfil the criteria for continued recognition on the basis of its poll performance.
(Source: LSUQ No. 3200 dated 12 August, 1997 by C.L. Gupta)
On Rehabilitation Of Kashmiris Pandits
No Kashmiri migrant family has returned to the Kashmir Valley after the installation of the new Government in the State.
The State Government is preparing an action plan for return of Kashmiri migrants to their native places and they have informed that the process is likely to take some time as the problem has to be tackled on a politico-economic basis. The question of setting up of target will arise only after the finalisation of the plan.
(Source: LSUQ No. 2382 dated 6 August, 1997 by K.L. Sharma)
On Sino-Indian Relationship
The Chinese Government have denied that they are extending assistance to separatist movements. Chinese maintains that it has never interfered in the internal affairs of other countries and would never do so. China has said that the Kashmir question is a legacy of history. China has expressed the hope that India and Pakistan would seek a settlement of this question through patient consultations and peaceful negotiations.
(Source: LSUQ No.308/13.8.1997 by T.S. Reddy and S.M. Dev)
Aasha Khosa On Foreign Mercenaries
...Battle-hardened and good fighters, foreign mercenaries have given a boost to militancy in the Valley, and put the security forces back on their toes. Army officers, who run into them in almost all the insurgent groups now, say they aim at inflicting the maximum damage on the enemy, before embracing almost suicidal ends in encounters.
During the past one month, all major encounters or attacks on security forces have been mercenaries in command...
Estimates on the number of mercenaries currently operating in the Valley give alarming figures. Intelligence agencies believe they are lying low for the moment as they are waiting for reinforcements from across the border.
A top police officer in charge of counter-insurgency in a border area (said) that some Pakistani Army regulars may also be slipping into Kashmir along with these mercenaries.
Other officers contradict these alarming projections, claiming the foreign mercenaries are becoming visible now because the security agencies have stepped up their operations against them.
In any case, the Army has a problem on its hands; how to deal with these mercenaries without losing its men. Sources say top Army officers want their troops to avoid a "frontline like" strategy while dealing with them as this only benefits the mercenaries, who wage a no-holds-barred battle and are prepared to die.
...Many...are prisoners who have been assured that their punishments would be waived if they helped in the Valley's "jehad".
...Each mercenary is said to get a fixed sum - Rs. 5 lakh as per recent reports - on return from a two-year tenure in Kashmir. In case they die, the money is given to their families.
According to Intelligence agencies, Pakistan's ISI is trying to persuade Taliban militiamen also to infiltrate into Kashmir at the earliest.
However, the latter are said to be resisting the move arguing that the Pakistani Army troops should also enter along with them...
Views Of Dr Asrar Ahmed
Ameer, Tahreek-e-Islami, Pakistan
On Kashmir I feel that even UN intervention has its risk. It is better for a peaceful settlement on the basis that the non-Muslim areas of the State should go to India and the Muslim areas to Pakistan.
