Washington/New Delhi/Islamabad, Aug 20 US President Donald Trump has urged his “two good friends”, Prime Ministers Narendra Modi of India and Pakistan”s Imran Khan, to work towards reducing tensions over Kashmir. He also advised Pakistan to “moderate rhetoric with India” over Kashmir.

In a tweet on Monday, Trump said though Kashmir was a “tough situation”, he had “good conversations” with both the leaders.

“Spoke to my two good friends, Prime Minister Modi of India, and Prime Minister Khan of Pakistan, regarding trade, strategic partnerships and, most importantly, for India and Pakistan to work towards reducing tensions in Kashmir. A tough situation, but good conversations,” he tweeted.

Trump first called up Modi earlier on Monday during which they held a 30-minute talk.

Modi conveyed that “extreme rhetoric and incitement to anti-India violence by certain leaders in the region was not conducive to peace”, in a reference to the Pakistani leadership spewing anti-India venom over the Kashmir issue.

Prime Minister Khan has been regularly taking to Twitter to attack Modi, calling him a fascist and racist. He has also alleged that Modi was turning India into a Hindu supremacist country, and that Muslims in the country were being disenfranchised and “RSS goons were on the rampage”.

During the call, the Indian leader also highlighted the importance of creating an environment free from terror and violence and eschewing cross-border terrorism without exception, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said in a statment.

Modi reiterated India”s commitment to cooperate with anyone who followed this path, in fighting poverty, illiteracy and disease.

The conversation comes days after the UN Security Council backed India in its efforts to bring in development in Kashmir after revoking its special status.

According to a White House readout of the conversation, Trump spoke with Modi to discuss regional developments and the US-India strategic partnership. The President also conveyed the importance of reducing tensions between India and Pakistan and maintaining peace in the region.

The two leaders further discussed strengthening of US-India economic ties through increased trade, and looked forward to meeting again soon, the readout added.

Later, Trump called up Khan.

Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Monday night said Trump made a call to Khan after his talk with Modi on the prevailing situation in Kashmir.

In a press briefing in Islamabad on Monday, Qureshi said that in response to Khan”s call on August 16, Trump made a call to Narendra Modi and “expressed the desire in lowering tensions between Pakistan and India”, Radio Pakistan reported.

A White House readout of the talk said: “President Trump spoke by telephone with Khan to discuss the need to reduce tensions and moderate rhetoric with India over the situation in Jammu and Kashmir.

“Trump reaffirmed the need to avoid escalation of the situation, and urged restraint on both sides. The two leaders also agreed to work together to strengthen US-Pakistan economic and trade cooperation.”

In his August 16 phone call to Trump, Khan had voiced his concerns over India”s “illegal” move in Kashmir, ahead of the UNSC closed-door discussion on Kashmir.

Khan told Trump that New Delhi”s moves on Kashmir posed a threat to regional peace. Trump conveyed to Khan the importance of India and Pakistan reducing tension through bilateral dialogue.

The talks between Trump and Modi came days after US Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan held talks with Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar in New Delhi to take forward the “deep convergences” in the India-US strategic ties, with both sides focussing on a rules-based order in the Indo-Pacific, where China has increased its footprint.

The US has reaffirmed that there was no change in its Kashmir policy, that it is a bilateral issue between India and Pakistan.

The Modi-Trump phone call was marked by the warmth and cordiality which characterises the relations between the two leaders, the MEA statement said.

The Prime Minister recalled their meeting in Japan”s Osaka on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in June.

Referring to their bilateral discussions in Osaka, he expressed hope that the Commerce Minister of India and the US Trade Representative would meet at an early date to discuss bilateral trade prospects for mutual benefit.

Recalling that Monday marked 100 years of the Independence of Afghanistan, he reiterated India”s longstanding and unwavering commitment to work for a united, secure, democratic and truly independent Afghanistan, the statement said.

Modi also said that he appreciated remaining in regular touch with the US President.

The Modi-Trump conversation in Osaka had been the subject of much speculation last month after Trump told Khan in Washington on July 22 that the Indian Prime Minister had asked him to mediate in the Kashmir issue.

But India strongly denied the statement, while Pakistan warmly welcomed it. The US immediately clarified Washington”s stand on the Kashmir issue, saying that it was a bilateral issue between New Delhi and Islamabad.

–IANS

New Delhi, Aug 20 Even before India abrogated Article 370, many of Kashmir”s top separatists were either put under detention or house arrest. It was a smart pincer move to ensure that these rogue elements didn”t raise Cain and manufacture trouble as is their wont.

In a calibrated and systematic intelligence agencies run operation coordinated by NSA Ajit Doval in conjunction with the newly appointed Union Home Minister Amit Shah, all these malevolent separatists were locked down, cutting the head of the snake to ensure that control of ground zero remained with the Valley”s security apparatus.

Many wonder where are Syed Ali Shah Geelani and company, as Kashmir increasingly appears to embrace the changed political reality. The dragnet necessitated that the hawks were put under detention, so that they did not foment trouble and this has worked like clockwork.

S.A.S. Geelani, the senior-most Hurriyat ideologue, has been kept in the confines of his two-storey Hyderpora residence. Someone who gave many a shutdown calls before and after terrorist Burhan Wani was gunned down by security forces in 2018 is now left incommunicado at his house. Meanwhile, his son-in-law Altaf Fantoosh is lodged in Tihar jail in Delhi for his anti-India activities, a case lodged by NIA making his life miserable.

Meanwhile, another top Joint Resistance Leadership separatist leader Mirwaiz Omar Farooq, who is facing a money-laundering investigation, is in his Nigeen Lake residence. His wife Sheeba Masoodi along with his daughters are, however, safely away in the United States.

Interestingly, Mirwaiz, who is also the head of the Jamia mosque in Srinagar, didn”t spew any anti-India venom after the Friday prayers as many expected. To the contrary, he has reportedly chosen to sermonise about drug abuse, leaving many to wonder whether he too has toned down his rhetoric. But leopards don”t change their spots and the house arrest may have had a sobering effect on him.

Yasin Malik was a dreaded name at the height of militancy when he presided over ethnic cleansing of Pandits from the Valley and gunned down four Indian Air Force (IAF) personnel in cold blood. He was a part of the notorious HAJY gang comprising Hamid Sheikh, Ashfaq Wani, Javed Ahmed Mir and himself who were also election agents of Muhammad Yusuf Shah aka Syed Salahuddin who won (but was declared lost) in the infamous 1987 ”rigged” election.

The election was systematically rigged under the watch of the Congress and Salahuddin picked up arms. In the following years, they were instrumental in the abduction of Rubaiya Sayeed, daughter of then Home Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed. The nation paid heavily to secure the release of Ms Sayeed in exchange for 13 terrorists.

Most of the HAJY gang members are dead today and Malik is lodged in a high-security cell of Tihar jail in Delhi. Malik, along with Hamid Sheikh, Ashfaq Wani and Javed Ahmad Mir, formed the core group — dubbed the “HAJY” group — of the JKLF militants in the Kashmir Valley.

The enormity of popular support received for their call for independence surprised them. Within two years, the JKLF in the Valley emerged as the “vanguard and spearhead of a popular uprising” against the Indian state.

The JKLF waged a guerrilla war with the Indian security forces, abducting Rubbaiya Sayeed, the daughter of the then Indian Home Minister, and targeting attacks on the government and security officials.

In March 1990, Ashfaq Wani was killed in a battle with Indian security forces. In August 1990, Yasin Malik was captured in a wounded condition. He was imprisoned until May 1994. Hamid Sheikh was also captured in 1992 but released by the BSF to counteract the pro-Pakistan guerrillas. By 1992, the majority of the JKLF militants were killed or captured.

Asiya Andrabi is a burqa-clad, venom spewing chief of Dukhtaran-e-Millat, an outfit that advocates jihad. She calls herself a self-described “Islamic feminist” but in reality, she heads an organisation that the Government of India has declared as a terrorist organisation. She too is in Tihar jail right now facing the music, along with two of her aides.

To give company to Malik in Tihar, there”s Shabbir Ahmed Shah, another Hurriyat leader. Having spent 31 years in jail already, Tihar may seem home to this separatist leader who in 2008 infamously took part in “Muzaffarabad Chalo” march in Pakistan occupied Kashmir.

Masarat Alam is the General Secretary of Hurriyat Conference. In 2010, he played a crucial role in stone-pelting in the Valley that injured many security personnel. At different times, he has had as many as 27 criminal cases lodged against him and the count simply doesn”t stop. Someone who had proudly said “I”m a stone thrower since childhood” is right now kept in the notorious Kot Bawal jail in Jammu under the Public Safety Act. Soon after the BJP-PDP alliance came to power, Alam was controversially released by the then Chief Minister Mufti Mohommad Sayeed blind siding the BJP.

Meanwhile, other players like Abdul Gani Bhat is kept arrested in his Wazir Bagh residence. Maulana Abbas Ansari, the Shia leader in the Sunni dominated ecosystem of Kashmir, has been a vocal anti-India voice. Right now he is in Chhattabal.

Bitta Karate or Farooq Ahmed Dar was a name that evoked strong fear in the nineties. Someone who had accepted on television interviews of killing multiple Kashmiri Pandits to enforce an ethno centrist genocide is today a prisoner in Tihar.

Nayeem Ahmed Khan, the Chairman of Jammu Kashmir National Front and provincial President of All Parties Hurriyat Conference, is another vitriolic speaking machine who is now booked under money laundering charges and giving company to his fellow jihadists in Tihar. He is the same man who was stung in an operation where he had accepted that he used to get money from Pakistan to fuel unrest in the Valley, even if that meant burning down of schools.

Kashmir has been a playground for these forces all these years. They had the audacity and wherewithal to abduct the daughter of a sitting Home Minister of the Union of India, and could unfurl a Pakistani flag on 14th August and release videos from unknown locations in the Valley espousing Islamic jihad. Today all of them are either behind bars or left cut off in their homes as Kashmir and Kashmiris welcome a new dawn of hope, opportunity and equality.

–IANS