Jihad's peacenik

PASSING THROUGH: Sardar Abdul Qayyum Khan

History is seldom as entwined around people as that of Sardar Abdul Qayyum Khan, former President of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

Khan's life begin in a village in Poonch district of undivided India where a Hindu teacher would lure Muslim boys to improve their math scores by offering an apple to each of his pupils.

At 23, he led a Muslim militia that broke his village and the rest of PoK away from India; his political career was spent in raising jihad forces and funds to foment militancy in Kashmir.

Today, at 83, when Sardar Qayyum Khan comes to Delhi to wage jihad for peace in the sub-continent, he wants to be taken seriously.

"The British had divided us then," he recalls, "but our tragedy continues today [so] when it comes to resolving our ghar ka jhagra, India and Pakistan are looking towards Western powers."

For him, the genesis of Indo-Pak tensions lay in the tenuous and conflicting nature of Hinduism and Islam. "Hinduism is one of the oldest religions of the world, while Islam in the sub-continent came from outside, and we had the British who exploited these differences to the hilt."

On Qayyum's second trip to India, he travelled to Ajmer to pay obeisance at the mausoleum of Khwaja Moiuddin Chisti: "Frankly, I don't feel as comfortable in any Western country as I am in Delhi."

Having taken a sudden u-turn against pursuing a violent and jihad-based fight for freedom for Kashmir, he managed to shock both Islamabad and embarrassed separatists in Kashmir.

"I felt the gun had overplayed its role in Kashmir and politicians should start talking," he says.

On more recent happenings inside PoK, the Sardar says, "There are no [armed training] camps in Azad Kashmir "" these had been dismantled long before 9/11, obviously under American pressure." The humanitarian issue today, he claims, is "about the fate of hundreds of PoK youth who had apparently come to join jihad in Kashmir and were held up there".

While Qayyum foresees Kashmir turning into a zone of peace with India and Pakistan opening their respective territories for communication, trade and cultural exchanges, he feels both countries continue to indulge in "subversive activities" through an unchecked media propaganda war.

He says he adviced General Musharraf to stop Pakistan television's anti-India propaganda.

The PoK leader lashes out at Hurriyat leaders for their recalcitrant attitudes, but seeks a compassionate view for the jihadi groups based in Pakistan.

"The boys of the Lashkar-e-Toiba need to be understood and not isolated and targeted," he pleads. "They are affiliated to a religious sect "" Ahlee Hadees "" which had fought against British rule in undivided India."

His argues against the Western world's "" and particularly America's "" allegations that "Pakistan is training jihadis".

"America needs to own up to its mistake of using jihad as a doctrine and Pakistan as a base camp for fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan. What you see in Pakistan today is a slipover of that war."

The 83-year-old leader is sceptical of political happenings inside Pakistan. "I am so distant from Islamabad," he says about the speculative deal between Benazir Bhutto and General Musharraf, but insists: "Whatever happens in Pakistan, the Indo-Pak peace dialogue should continue."