WHERE THE TERROR BEGAN
PROFESSOR ALI SUKHANVER
‘The Meadow:Kashmir1995 – Where the terror began’ is a book recently released in March 2012. Adrian Levy & Catherine Scott-Clark are the authors of this book. The authors say they spent a long time on doing research and investigation and finally succeeded in finding out the reality that the Indian government itself is behind the long story of human rights violations inKashmir. Commenting upon the kidnapping of six western tourists in 1995 from Anantnag the authors say, “It appeared that there were some in the Indian establishment who did not want this never-ending bad news story of Pakistani cruelty and Kashmiri inhumanity to end, even when the perpetrators themselves were finished.” The writers claim kidnapping of six western tourists in 1995 including two Britons, two Americans, one German and one Norwegian tourist in Anantnag district was carried out by a group of Kashmiri militants who worked for Indian Army. The tourists were kidnapped by a terrorist organization Al-Faran, which initially demanded release of 21 persons including Harkat chief Maulana Masood Azhar and Omar Sheikh. Later Azad Nabi, a pro-govt militant, bought four from Al Faran for 4 lakhs and shot them on 24 Dec 1995. In all this story of abduction the most interesting thing is the demand of release of Harkat chief Maulana Masood Azhar, who in fact has nothing to do with Al-Faran. His name was included in the demand list just to dragPakistaninto the affair and to give the world a false impression thatPakistanwas behind this abduction.Indiaauthorities are still projecting the thought that Al-Faran, which claimed responsibility for the abductions, was part of the Harkat-ul-Ansar militant group but Harkat denies any ties with Al-Faran.