Hindu militant

Nov 10,2004

Hindu militant, 46 others lay down arms
S.P. Sharma
Tribune News Service

Nagrota, November 9
For the first time in 15 years of militancy, a Hindu, Manoj Kumar Manhas, was among the 47 terrorists of various Pakistan-backed outfits who surrendered before the army here today. Reports of some Hindu boys having joined the terrorist ranks had been received, but this is for the first time that one of them has got motivated to surrender his arms.

This is the biggest single surrender following the announcement of a rehabilitation policy for the militants by the state government. The terrorists laid down their arms before the GOC of the 16 Corps, Lt Gen Ashok Kapur and the DGP, Mr Gopal Sharma.

The terrorists, who were in their 20s, belonged to the Lashkar-e-Toiba, Hizbul Mujahideen and Harkat-ul-Mujahideen that have been active in the state. Thirteen of the terrorists were hardcore and mostly operating in Doda district.

Manoj Kumar (20) said he was kidnapped by another Hindu militant, Baldev Singh, in May while he was going to school at Basti village, near Bhaderwah. He fled from the custody of the militants in July but was again picked up. He claimed that he was forced into terrorism, as the terrorists believed that his father was an informer.

He was afraid of returning home after being released by the army as he feared that the terrorists would eliminate him. He said he would prefer to remain in the custody of the security forces.

Hassam Din was beaming with joy as he met his son, Parvez, who had joined the militants six years ago.

Nazir Ahmed Bhatt, of Thathri village in Doda was kidnapped by the terrorists of the Al-Jehad group in November, 1993, and given arms training at ISI-run camps at Muzaffarabad and Peshwar. He was assigned a clerical job in the office of the terrorist outfit at Kotli in the PoK.

Lt Gen Kapur said these terrorists were being motivated for the past year to lay down their arms and draw benefit from the rehabilitation policy.

Most of them had got disillusioned following the killing of their leaders by the security forces.

The security forces were expecting more militants to surrender. Resentment and disenchantment has been building among the terrorists because of lack of support and funding from across the border. They were also annoyed due to ill-treatment being meted out to the local women by foreign mercenaries.

As many as 210 terrorists have surrendered since 2000 in the Jammu region.