NEW DELHI: The former Jammu and Kashmir tourism minister, Khemlata Wakhloo and her husband, who were rescued from militant captivity Friday, have described their erstwhile captors as “our children” and said govt should open a dialogue with the militants.
On arrival New Delhi from Srinagar Saturday evening, the Wakhloo couple told newsmen that the militants were “misguided youth who had been led astray by forces from across the border”, They said during their captivity they felt that a sizable section of the militants also appeared weary and wanted a dialogue Lo be opened.
Asked if such a dialogue should be selective differentiating between the moderates and ultra-fundamentalist, Khemlata Wakhloo merely said, “a is high time that the govt opens a dialogue with youths, who had some grievances”.
Looking disheveled visibly exhausted but cheerful, the couples were all praise for the army rescue operation saying it had come out of blue even “as we had lost all hope of coming out of the trauma alive”.
All the three militants who were guarding us were caught along with their weapons. The security forces also nabbed seven other militants from the Wadbah village between Tangmarg and Baramulla.
K hemlata Wakhloo said during their 44 days captivity, their place of confinement was changed 55 times. “Sometimes we were moved by vehicles, sometime on foot and sometimes we were blindfolded”, they said adding that however during the entire period they were not tortured and treated well by their captors.
“Though our captors did not want us to know, the places where we were being confined, most of the time he had an idea where we were being held”, Wakhloo said adding that most of the time they were held in areas which were strongholds of the Hezb-I-Mujhadeen, an ally of Hizbullaha.
They said they spent their long hours of captivity listening to Voice of America, BBC and reading newspapers. “Our captors allowed us to mix with the families in whose houses we were confined. We taught the children, their elders and sometimes even the militants”, the Wakhloo’s said.
The couple was tightlipped when asked if they thought the govt policy vis-a-vis giving in to the demands of the militant kidnappers was even handed or not.
She asserted that at no time had their captors demanded any kind of ransom. Asked if they had any knowledge of other kidnap victims, the couple said they had heard about them only through the media.
Waklhoo said the govt would need a flexible approach in solving the problem. “They had grievances mostly about being cheated in 1987 elections and others and these needed to be tackled”, she added.
She said the militants were now feeling the absence of the Kashmiri Hindus”. The time would come soon when the migrants
Who be called back by the militants”, Wakhloo said.
Article extracted from this publication >> October 25, 1991
