SRINAGAR: Major Mast Gul, who Jed militants in ChrareSharief till the town and the shrine were set ablaze last fortnight, has blamed the security forces for the incident.
Disclosing this to a group of reporters at a press conference somewhere here, Must Gul denied that the shrine was set ablaze by militants. He added that rocket and mortar shells were used by the security forces against the hiding militants, which caused fire to the shrine, He said the “fight” would continue. Giving details of the events that took place between May 811, when the whole town and the shrine of Sheikh Nooruddin Wali were razed to ground, Mast Gul said that the Army had told him and his colleagues to surrender. “We chose to fight till last from the boathouses,” he said. He said that he along with his colleagues left the spot in the intervening night of May 10-11.
It may be mentioned here that the: government and the Army have been blaming militants for the incident while the Hizbul Mujahideen, to which Mast Gul belongs, and several other separatist organization and residents say that the Army is responsible for the burning down of the town and the shrine: Looking healthy, Mast Gul said there were only 37 militants in the town when the security forces laid a siege around ChrareSharief on March 5. He said: We decided to escape from there, with now detained Abud Jindal of the HarkatulAnsar leading one group and myself another. We were not challenged by the security forces though they were present at the place from where we escaped,” ‘Answering a question, Mast Gul denied that he was a resident of Chinar Parpe village in occupied Kashmir. When asked why he rejected the safe passage offer from the authorities.
Mast Gul said he had come here to fight and not to enjoy life. Gul said he was thinking of leaving, the shrine after the month of Ramzan, but because of the siege “we could not do so.” Mast Gul said there were about 1,400 foreign militants operating in Jammu ‘and Kashmir.
Article extracted from this publication >> June 2, 1995
