BOMBAY: The Union home minister, S.B.Chavan, has warned that Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence might try to create panic in major Indian cities by engineering blasts, as it did in Madras and Hyderabad. He said he had received intelligence reports that it was the ISI which was behind the blasts.

Speaking to The Times of India News Service at Puttaparthi, where he went last week to participate in the convocation Satya Sai University, Chavan said he was relieved that the Hazratbal crisis had been resolved satisfactorily, The ISI was involved in the incident, he claimed.

He said he was happy to notice a shift in the attitude of the people in the Valley. The ISI’s attempts to instigate the people to come out on the streets against the government had failed miserably. This clearly showed that they did not support militant activities in the Valley.

Chavan said a large number of Kashmiri people depended on tourism which was their main source of livelihood. However, no shikaras were hired for a number of years. All luxury hotels were empty and their only clients were government officials camping in the Valley. This had demoralized the local people who felt cut off from the rest of the country.

The home minister lamented that while all political parties were talking about Kashmir, no one was ready to work in the Valley, Replying to a question, he said he was prepared to provide full protection to anyone who volunteered to work there. To promote these efforts, he would be shortly calling a meeting of all the major political parties, he said.

Chavan reiterated that no deal had been struck with the militants at Hazratbal. They will have to face the law, he insisted.

Elaborating on the ISI role at Hazratbal, he said the plan was to turn Muslim nations against India. Had any untoward event taken place at the shrine, it would have taken several years to undo the damage.

He said the authorities found there was an attempt to demolish two mosques in the vicinity at the height of the crisis, also, locks at two of the games was found to have been tampered with.

Article extracted from this publication >>  December 3, 1993