Love him or hate him, but you just cant fault the United Jihad Council (UJC) chief and Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) supremo Syed Sallahudin on his brilliance in successfully accomplishing whatever he sets out to do. And it is due to this quality of his that he has ensured that even when the global war against terror is at its peak with American drones wrecking havoc in Pakistan, his outfit remains unscathed. The announcement of the rehabilitation policy by the J&K government and return of some erstwhile militants appears to have initially unnerved him. And readers would recall how Sallahudin, strongly reacting to this policy, went on to put curse for one thousand times on those who return to Kashmir in a way they have to surrender before and seek forgiveness from the enemy and go behind the bars. But Sallahudin is not man to just make emotional statements and then merely sit there cursing and brooding- he lives up to his threats!
However, it seems that Sayyed Liyaqat Shah of the Hizbul Mujahideen, under estimated his supremos ability to sabotage his plans to surrender. So, deciding to call it quits, he with his wife and children in tow, returned to Kashmir through the illegal but popular Nepal route, just like many of his colleagues had done earlier. But he must have got the shock of his life when, instead of being felicitated for having given up the armed struggle, and returning home a reformed man, Shah found himself in the custody of Indian sleuths who promptly charged him with planning to carryout terrorists acts in the national capital! Of course, there is a distinct possibility that Shah may have indeed infiltrated into India for carrying out terror strikes. But, if this was the case, would he have been so naïve as to get his whole family to accompany him when he was entering India to execute the dangerous mission of waging war against the State- and that too in the national capital?
So, while New Delhi may claim to have irrefutable evidence of Shahs evil designs, there is also a likelihood that he has deliberately been done in by his own former Amir. And it is not very difficult to fathom the reason for this. After all, Shah is no ordinary foot soldier of the HM he has been a commander of sorts and the surrender of such a high-ranking member would naturally be very embarrassing for the HM outfit and could open the floodgates for desertion. So, in order to teach him a lesson and also dissuade others from following suit, isnt it quite possible that the Indian intelligence agencies were deliberately tipped off regarding Shahs return as well as informed about his mission of carrying out terror attacks in New Delhi?
Another related issue that eludes logical reasoning is the unprecedented act on the part of Syed Sallahudin himself- that of coming out openly in defence of Sayyed Liyaqat Shah by saying, My preliminary reports suggest that Liyaqat had gone to join the family back in Kupwara. Prima-facie it appears that he had no intention of carrying out any attack. Probably the Indian sleuths in the NIA have taken this as conclusive evidence that, as a concerned father- figure, Sallahudin is attempting to bail out his commander. They obviously seem to be so overjoyed with their big catch that they have not even bothered to ponder as to why a man who has put put a thousand curses on the likes of Shah, is taking pains to come out in his defence! But then, this is probably the way Indian intelligence agencies work!
It is also surprising that the separatist conglomerate, which has been very vocal and frequent in expressing strong resentment over New Delhis grand conspiracy to harass Kashmiris, has maintained a stoic silence on the unconvincing reasons for which Sayyed Liyaqat Shah has been arrested Is he not a Kashmiri? Im sure that if Shah had not given up the gun and had been martyred, the separatists would have called for hartals and made a bee – line to express solidarity with his bereaved family. And this is unfortunately the tragedy of the poor Kashmiri- alive, he has no value and one to fight for him, but in death he suddenly becomes a hero! And so, as Shah languishes in jail while his wife and children struggle to survive in an environment that considers them traitors and treats them like a pariah, it is probably Syed Sallahudin who is having the last laugh.
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