Dubs Mansoor Ijaz As Liar
ALLEGED MEET WITH RAW CHIEF
NISAR AHMED THOKAR
Islamabad, Mar 27: Refuting the statement by Mansoor Ijaz that he had arranged a meeting of Yasin Malik with RAW Chief, the chairman of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front recorded his statement before a 3-member memo commission led by Justice Qazi Faez Isa in the Pakistani capital on Monday. Malik said that he would quit from public life if charges against him were proved.“I’ll quit politics if any one proves that I have ever met any RAW official, big or small throughout my years-long political carrier,” Malik said adding that while living in a conflict zone such allegations could have dangerous implications.Malik informed the commission that a media report published in Hindustan Times led to the killing of veteran cardiologist and JKLF ideologue Dr. Abdul Ahad Guru. Waving the photographs of Dr. Guru in the courtroom, he said that many other leaders including Professor Abdul Ahad Wani and Moulana Showkat were assassinated in similar circumstances. Referring to former bureaucrat Wajahat Habibullah’s book, he told the court that the book reveals the whole story as how the JKLF ideologue was killed.When Justice Qazi Faez Isa asked Malik to present a written statement before the commission, he said, “Since my name was publicly maligned and therefore the honorable court should allow me to record my statement in public.”He maintained that he had great faith in Pakistan’s judiciary and was optimistic that the court would provide him the opportunity to depose whole truth.“An opportunity of hearing is required to be provided by the commission more so when the material is brought on record which tends to adversely affect the person named”, he said and added that it was also in consonance with the rules of natural justice to hear a person who was likely to be affected in the proceedings of the commission. He said that his primary objective to appear before the memo commission was to enable the people and the commission to know the whole truth. With a view to correct the record, he said, he wanted to make it absolutely clear that he had never ever met any person who was either deputy chief or chief of RAW. He said that during his 30 years struggle he had spent 13 years in jails. “I was just 16-year old boy when I was arrested in 1984”, he said.“When I was in detention the personnel of Indian Intelligence Bureau, counter intelligence and military intelligence came to interrogate me but even under detention no RAW personnel came to meet me,” he said.He said that the allegation of having secret meeting with any RAW personnel has serious political implications for him as he has been exposed to danger.He said that following the arrest of APHC leaders he as the acting chairman of the amalgam spearheaded a successful anti-poll campaign in 1999, which caused huge embarrassment to the Indian government. Later, he said, that there was a grenade attack in Srinagar which the DG of police attributed to him although he was engaged and leading an unarmed peaceful struggle since 1994 when JKLF announced a unilateral ceasefire and decided to launch a peaceful democratic struggle.In the meanwhile, Malik said, Wajahat Habibullah who at that time was performing his duties in Washington, after watching the press conference of the DG called him and in a good faith suggested him that he should meet RAW chief A S Dulat.Malik said, “I categorically refused to meet Dulat and told Wajahat that being a political activist I have no need to meet him.” As a result, he said, he was arrested and shifted to notorious Jodhpur jail in 1999. He said that when the US president Bill Clinton visited India in 2000 wherein he took up the issue of Kashmiri political detainees with Indian government and as a result he and other persons were released in July 2000.He said that besides Wajahat Habibullah, R K Mishra who was having good relations with former Indian premier Atal Bihari Vajpayee, was involved in track-II and wanted that “I should meet Dulat but I did not.”Terming US-based businessman of Pakistani origin, Mansoor Ijaz, a ‘mad man,’ Malik said that a seminar titled “give peace a chance” was organised by an NGO run by Kiran Sahani in Haryana in November 2001, which, he said, was attended by many Kashmiri leaders besides him and other international figures. He said that he spoke on first day but on the second day of the seminar there was sort of buzz that some special guest from the USA was to address the conference. He said that the special guest was none other but US businessman Mansoor Ijaz who in his speech gave the impression as if he was special envoy of President Bill Clinton.“During his speech Mansoor Ijaz right away started abusing Muslims left and right which infuriated many participants including me,” he said. Presenting photographs of the seminar, Malik said, “Many Kashmiris became angry and I hurled a shoe on him and later took over the rostrum while pushing him down.”He said that next day Mansoor Ijaz, who was staying in a suite in Hotel Taj, phoned him almost 20 times in Bristol Hotel. “Finally I took his call and he said that he wanted to apologize for what happened during the seminar and why he used so abusive language against Muslims”, Malik told the commission adding that Ijaz invited him for lunch at Hotel Taj.“I went to Hotel Taj and as I entered into his suite he was quite apologetic and just started his explanations regarding his negative approach towards Muslims” , Malik said. “What Ijaz said can’t be expressed in public”, he said adding that he was ready to share it with the commission if needed.Malik stated that after a few minutes a person dressed in proper suit and tie entered into the room and Mansoor Ijaz without naming the person said that he was his close friend and a businessman. “The gentleman, which Mansoor Ijaz said was his close friend, did not introduce himself (and) praised me and said that he supported our struggle.”“While saying that he was a great admirer of me the gentleman after some time told me that why should I not meet A S Dulat, which raised my suspicion regarding him and I left the room forthwith without having lunch with Mansoor Ijaz,” Malik said. He added that he still does not know who that gentleman was.In 2001, he said, he was issued a passport by Indian government for the first time as he needed surgery in his ear which was damaged as a result of severe torture by intelligence personnel. After his treatment in USA, Malik said, he had some high profile meetings with the US State Department officials, think tanks including Karl Inderfurth, Harry Thomas and others.Malik said that when he asked them about the conduct of Mansoor Ijaz who acted and behaved like a special envoy of President Clinton they all laughed and said that he was never assigned any official responsibility.Following these meetings, Malik told the commission, he travelled to New York at Mansoor Ijaz’s flat at Manhattan just to convey him that he was a big liar.He said after his first surgery when he returned to Delhi via London he was arrested and sent to Tihar Jail besides confiscating his passport. He said that his lawyer however managed to get his passport back and he went to have his second surgery in USA. Upon his return he said that he was again arrested by Indian authorities under POTA alleging that one of his party spokesman from Pakistan took 100,000 dollars to Nepal and handed over to a girl named Shahista who brought the money to Srinagar to him for carrying out militant activities. He said that he learnt about the said allegations and was going to hold a press conference to clarify his poison in this regard.“I was not allowed to do so and instead I was arrested from Srinagar and then shifted to Jammu (Chani interrogation center)”, he said adding that he was brutally tortured as a result he lost hearing of one ear because he refused to confess to the allegations levelled against him and was released in 2002.He pleaded that in 2006 he had a meeting with Indian Prime Minister who was accompanied by more than a dozen senior officials including Home Minister, National Security Adviser, Director Intelligence Bureau and others; even in this high profile meeting no official from RAW was present. “I have been meeting frequently with political personalities of India as well as the civil society to get the issue of Kashmir resolve peacefully but I have never ever met any RAW official inside or outside and the allegations of Mansoor Ijaz are baseless, unfounded and unjustified”, he concluded.Justice Qazi Faez Isa while concluding the proceedings asked Mansoor Ijaz’s counsel Akram Sheikh to submit in writing whether he wanted to cross-examine Malik.Malik is the first Kashmiri leader who had to defend his case in a Pakistani court without any legal counsel. Although he was advised by the commission that he had every right to have his counsel but he prayed before the commission that he would plead his case on his own to bring about the whole truth before the commission. The representatives of print and electronic media were present during the entire hearing that went on whole day from 9:30 am till 10:00 pm.
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