Will Kashmir militants give a second chance to new surrender policy?

On November 16, seven days after 20-year-old Majid Khan left his home in Anantnag to join militancy, Kashmir inspector general of police (IGP) Muneer Khan told mediapersons that a new “militant surrender policy” was in the making. “We will get positive results in the near future,” he said, full of hope.

A day later, the state police held another rushed press conference, and presented Majid to the public and media saying he had given in to his family’s pleas and returned after eight days with the Lashkar-e-Toiba. The Army hailed Majid, Anantnag’s ace footballer, called him a surrendered militant and said his was a very “brave decision”.

According to IGP Khan, the government is keen on formulating a new surrender policy and “a vigorous counselling campaign is going on to discourage youth from joining militancy”.

The police blame social media campaigns and “religious indoctrination” for school dropouts and college students being lured into militancy in Kashmir. The IGP said almost 15-17 young boys have joined militancy, but local newspaper Greater Kashmir put the figure at 41 (from July to October this year), quoting official documents.

Talking to journalists after the second press conference, IGP Khan said Majid had returned on his own. “Let me tell you he was neither apprehended nor did he surrender. He went on his own and has come back on his own,” he pointed out.

The IGP reiterated his appeal to militants to return and said the state would stick to its surrender policy and “will welcome the local youth with open arms”. “They are part of society and have the right to live a dignified life,” he said.

What the new policy promises

The IGP told Newslaundry that the proposed new rehabilitation policy would pay more attention to bringing back militants within Kashmir unlike the previous policies which were “too sensitive to militants who had crossed the border”.

The new policy would focus on educational and vocational training. “If they’re young and want to study, we can get them a seat through some quota. But if they’re older and can’t go back to education, then they will be provided with vocational training. They will also be given a stipend during the training period. Post-training, we will have to look at ways to place them in jobs,” Khan said, also confirming that the J&K Police are in the process of compiling a list of recommendations which will “soon” be sent to New Delhi for approval.

How did previous policies fare?

It is, however, not the first proposal for a policy on rehabilitation of surrendered militants. The first such policy was formulated in 2004, and then another one in 2010.

Haleef Haidiri, 58, is a surrendered militant who agreed to meet Newslaundry after a lot of coercion. Sitting in his dimly lit friend’s bedroom, he said “yours is an arrogant country. I got nothing but humiliation and harassment from India. To hell with your rehabilitation policy”.

“Yeh ek jhoota mulk hai, aur yeh sab jhoote log hai (this is a fraud country and all its people are liars),” he said, spitting on the ground.

Haidiri, old enough to have a white beard, insisted he preferred “life with the gun” because it at least gave him some dignity. “I have spent the last 10 years living like a broken radio, answering the same question – uthaya kyun, chhoda kyun (why did you pick it (gun) up, why did you leave it?). This is what India very generously gave me after inviting us to return – a dog’s life,” he said.

Narrating his story, he said he had left for PoK for the “final time” in 1992 when he was 25. He joined the Hizbul Mujahideen and went on to become a divisional commander. After six years with the outfit in PoK, he gave up the gun and started an organisation called Jammu and Kashmir Refugee Welfare Organisation.

According to Haidiri, after the rehabilitation policy was announced in 2010 he decided to return to his wife and three children in Srinagar. But coming to Kashmir, he had to go through endless interrogation by the police who to this day harass him “every time something happens”, he said.

Mohammad Yusuf, 42, is another surrendered militant who is dissatisfied with life. He had crossed the border and gone to PoK for arms training in 1990. Sitting in a park on an unusually sunny winter morning, Yusuf said he preferred to be called Jehangir Bhatt, a code name he was assigned during his training with Janbaz Force, the militant outfit he had joined.

“I have had a better life with that name,” he said.

Bhatt left Srinagar when he was 15. “At that time in Kashmir, you met militants on the streets. I met a few of them at a chai shop, started talking to them and decided to go with them. The plan was to go across, get trained and come back to fight the Indian government. I was young, restless and full of rage. I didn’t know what I was doing,” he said.

After two months of training in PoK, Bhatt got disillusioned by the Janbaz Force and “decided to give up the gun”. In 1997, he married Shaziya, a Pakistani woman, and settled down in PoK.

In 2010, just like Haidiri, Bhatt was also thrilled to learn about the new rehabilitation policy which seemed keen on giving former militants who had crossed the border a second chance at life in Kashmir. Accompanied by four-five other families, Bhatt along with his wife and three children returned to Kashmir via Nepal in 2011.

When asked about his life back home, Bhatt paused and said, “I have got nothing from this so-called policy. They’re simply making a fool of us. Yeh sirf rajneeti hai (this is just politics)”.

According to Bhatt, as soon as he reached Srinagar he was taken into custody for 12 days. “I knew they would take me into custody for a while but what I didn’t know is that they would take away whatever I had. I had Rs 50,000 as savings which the police took away from me. Finally, when I was released, I was left with nothing and had to start all over on my own,” he said.

His wife Shaziya’s father recently passed away and her grandmother is bed-ridden, but because Shaziya was not given any official identity documents (which were promised to her in the policy), she cannot go back.

Bhatt also revealed that he and a few other men who had returned from PoK with Pakistani wives had met Mehbooba Mufti before she came to power in J&K. “Back then, she told us that if we vote for her, she would help us. As soon as she became CM, we met her again and she said she can’t do anything for us,” he said.

An hour later, as Bhatt got up to leave, he said: “Nobody wants the truth here. You wait and see, you will not get any concrete numbers or data. And even if you do get something, it is the numbers they want you to see. It is only the politicians benefitting from this policy. It’s all about maintaining status quo.”

The story in numbers

In 2004, the state government started a rehabilitation policy under which it was promised that an immediate grant of Rs 1.5 lakh would be put in a fixed deposit account for the person who surrenders, and which he could access after three years based on an assessment of good behaviour. Apart from this, a monthly stipend of Rs 2,000 was to be given for three years, along with incentives depending on the weapon laid down.

The policy also guaranteed that if the surrendering militant wished to undergo vocational training for self‐employment, “the government will facilitate such training free of cost at the centres to be decided on case-to-case basis”.

The policy stated two conditions for eligibility: a) known militants who surrendered with weapons, and b) hardcore militants even without weapons.

Without offering any explanation on who is a “hardcore militant”, the policy document went on to say that the “authority accepting the surrenderee shall have reason to believe that the terrorist concerned has undergone a change of heart and wants to renounce violence”. It did not demarcate clearly the line between “militant” and “terrorist”.

In 2010, the government formulated a new surrender militant policy.

This time, the policy proposed by then J&K chief minister Omar Abdullah and approved by Union home minister P Chidambaram, was termed a “big confidence-building measure”. It was projected as granting amnesty to Kashmiri youth who “had crossed over to PoK/Pakistan for training in insurgency but have given up insurgent activities due to a change of heart and are willing to return to the State”.

The policy stated that it was valid for those who had gone to PoK/Pakistan between January 1989 and December 2009. It also said that “wives, children and other dependents of those returnees who have married in PoK/Pakistan during the period 1.1.1989 to 31.12.2009, will be considered for entry into the country as per the existing laws of the land and the necessary certificate for entry will be issued to them”.

Apart from this, the policy promised that counselling centres will be established where all returnees along with their wives and children would be lodged for three months or such longer time as would be necessary till they are thoroughly interviewed, de-briefed and all necessary documents are prepared.

Local Jammu newspaper The Daily Pioneer in 2015 said that according to official sources “between 2004 and March 2015, a total number of 608 militants have surrendered before security forces”. It quoted sources as saying that a total amount of Rs 9.59 crore had been spent on surrendered militants – Rs 6.48 crore on immediate grant of Rs 1.5 lakh and Rs 3.11 crore as stipend.

The Daily Pioneer article also stated that 551 militants surrendered between 2004 and 2008 when the state was governed by the PDP-Congress alliance and 57 militants surrendered between 2009 and 2014, during Omar Abdullah’s term as CM.

According to the article, 453 former militants returned home via the Nepal route along with their wives (Pakistani nationals) and children after the 2010 policy was formulated.

The official line

Newslaundry reached out to IGP Khan to clarify the number of beneficiaries under the two surrender policies and regarding eligibility for the policy. Here’s an excerpt from the conversation that took place:

Nidhi Suresh: When do you consider someone a surrendered militant?

Muneer Khan: When he surrenders weapons.

NS: Then he is entitled to the benefits?

MK: Yes. If a militant surrenders and has done a heinous crime, an act of terror, then, his case will be taken to court and he will receive benefits based on the verdict.

NS: How do you differentiate between a militant and a terrorist?

MK: A terrorist is anyone who does an act of terror, a heinous crime, a subversive activity.

NS: So if militants surrender arms and have been part of an attack, they become terrorists?

MK: Yes

NS: Then they don’t get benefits from the policy?

MK: No

NS: So let me clarify, only a person who surrenders a weapon and has not taken part in an attack is eligible under the rehabilitation policy.

MK: Yes

NS: So a militant who surrenders without a weapon cannot be eligible for benefits?

MK: No. That would be called “rejoining family”.

NS: Did the militants who decided to return in the 90s or early 2000s also benefit from the 2004 policy?

MK: I am not sure.

NS: Do you have a list of beneficiaries under the policies of 2004 and 2010?

MK: Please contact the IGP CID for this information.

NS: Okay. So far, how many FD accounts have been opened for the surrendered militants?

MK: Not many

NS: Is there a number?

MK: I don’t remember. But not many were opened.

NS: Why

MK: There wasn’t much eagerness for it. They didn’t ask for it.

NS: I’m sorry sir, correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t they entitled to the FD account? Do they need to ask for it?

MK: Yes, they need to ask.

NS: So they have to study the policy before they surrender and will only get what they’re entitled to if they ask for it?

MK: Yes

When Newslaundry reached out to the IGP of CID, Abdul Ghani Mir, for the list of beneficiaries under the 2004 and 2010 policies, he said he would “have to check with his team if such information can be given out in the media or not”. Since then, his phone has remained unanswered.

Surrendered militant Haidiri has no hope from the government. “Now I can’t even be bothered to ask for benefits. It would take a lot of lack of integrity to go begging after this government,” he said. A friend sitting next to him pointed out that Haidiri had refused to go with the delegation of surrendered and released militants to meet interlocutor Dineshwar Sharma, newly appointed by the Modi government.

When asked why, Haidiri again spit on the ground. “In 2008, when I was in prison that man interrogated me. He was in the Intelligence Bureau and he mentally tortured me,” he said, pausing before adding: “Even my dog won’t go to him to ask for water, let alone peace.”