On Monday, a militant group active in Jammu and Kashmir, United Jihad Council (UJC), announced a unilateral ceasefire for three days because of the occasion of Eid-ul-Fitr. UJC works as an umbrella group of major militant organisations based in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. The UJC militants have reportedly announced that the ceasefire would come into effect from October 12 for the next three days.
UJC spokesman Syed Sadaqat Hussain has issued a statement from his base in PoK. It says:
The decision was taken in an extra-ordinary meeting of UJC, which was presided over by Syed Salah-ud-din. The ceasefire was announced with an aim to provide some succor to the people on Eid.
Hussain further said that the UJC has asked all the militants operating in Jammu and Kashmir to observe the ceasefire religiously. According to him, the decision of ceasefire will be applied on all militants active in J&K. The UJC has asked them to follow the ceasefire guidelines completely for the period.
On the other hand, Defence spokesman Lt Col AK Mathur said that at Srinagar said, till now, the Hizb-ul-Mujhadeen has given a call for ceasefire and Lashkar-e-Toiba has not said anything on this call. The government has applied ‘wait and watch policy’ now.
This has happened after seven years when a militant outfit has called for ceasefire in J&K. Earlier, Hizb-ul-Mujhadeen had announced a unilateral ceasefire in July 2000 but revoked it just after one month because of pressure mounted from Syed Salah-ud-din.
Later, the Vajpayee government had announced a unilateral Ramzan ceasefire but the militant groups did not respond it. The Union government then withdrew the ceasefire after some months.
An Indian intelligence officer, however, said that they would review the matter on the before taking any decision in this matter. He said:
We want to see whether it is a gimmick or the militants are serious. We shall have to wait for a few more days.
Earlier, several mainstream political parties in the valley had urged the government to announce Ramzan ceasefire but the government did not take it seriously because of the previous examples of the ceasefire initiatives taken in the valley.
