Farooq asks foreign militants to leave

By Shujaat Bukhari

JAMMU, FEB. 10. The Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister, Dr. Farooq Abdullah, today asked foreign militants to leave the soil of Kashmir ``honourably'' while suggesting that the locals leave the legacy of the gun. He reiterated that the Government would not be cowed down by the attacks such as the one on the police control room and resolved to wipe out militancy in the State.

Sharing the stage with the militant-turned-counter insurgent leader-turned MLA and Awami League chief, Mr. Kukka Parray, at a well attended public rally at Hajin in Baramulla district today he said his opposition to the gun in 1990 fell to deaf ears and the situation now is totally unsafe. He said, that about 70,000 persons have fallen to militancy but ``even today we do not know when one among us is killed, whether he was killed by this side (Indian) or that side (Pakistan)''.

Reiterating his Government's commitment to peace, Dr. Abdullah said, ``We want peace, let foreign militants return home honourably.'' The Chief Minister made a fervent appeal to Pakistan to strengthen the (peace) initiative.

He said, ``they attacked the police control room on Friday thinking it will shake us but it has not, it has infact strengthened our resolve to fight to the finish''.

Dr. Farooq Abdullah expressed apprehensions over the success of the Hurriyat leaders' visit to Pakistan and said that it (Hurriyat ) was ``a force that is standing on dead bodies''. Infact, he said, they themselves want violence and this was evident when they opposed the Hizb cease-fire in July 2000.

Speaking to the rally, Mr. Parray said he was forced to be part of the ``hoodlums'' when ``they kept me immersed in the Jhelum for three hours in chilling winters accusing me of being a mukhbir (informer) because I would go to Delhi.'' Talking of his later years when he rebelled, Mr. Parray said ``the situation became so hostile that the people (from his area) had to change their identity cards when they went to Srinagar in order to evade the informer tag.''

Extending his full support, ``from this day we will be two bodies and one soul'', to the Chief Minister in ``crushing

militancy'', Mr. Parray said ``all those people who upheld the tricolour and died for the nation must be cared about''. He pleaded to all political parties to come together to fight the ``curse jointly''.

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