Waheed-ur-Rehman Para Is Another Name For Deceit
Waheed-ur-Rehman Para was another name for deceit, chance mischief and double behavior: Terror Funding In Kashmir.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) filed charge sheets against Peoples Democratic Party youth wing president Waheed ur Rehman Para in March 2021 and the Jammu and Kashmir Police’s CIK in the court earlier this month.
In these, Para has been described as an agent of Pakistan-based terrorist organizations and separatists in India’s mainstream politics and government machinery.
Para’s lawyer and PDP president Mehbooba Mufti has denied the allegations.
According to the NIA and CIK charge sheets, Para’s double life began with his visit to Pakistan in 2007 and interviews with Hizbul Mujahideen chief commander Syed Salahuddin.
He had telecast this interview on a cable TV channel based in Pulwama after his return to Kashmir.
Four years after interviewing the Hizb commander, Para got the chance to be a member of the second edition of Ram Jethmalani’s Kashmir Committee.
Earlier, the Kashmir Committee was active from 2002 to 2004. Along with Para, journalists MJ Akbar, Madhu Kishwar, and retired Indian Foreign Service bureaucrat VK Grover were also members of the Kashmir Committee.
Jethmalani had formed the Kashmir Committee again after the violent protests of 2010 and wanted him to hold talks with various organizations in Kashmir to resolve the issue.
The committee again failed in its objective, but Para grew in stature and got an opportunity to join Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s PDP shortly before the 2014 assembly elections.
He benefited from the alleged links with Salahuddin and the separatists. He was made the president of the PDP youth wing.
After the formation of the PDP-BJP coalition government, he also became the secretary of the Jammu and Kashmir Sports Council, but did not give up the post of PDP youth wing president.
After the death of Mufti Sayeed,Waheed-ur-Rehman became one of the special mentors of PDP President and former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti.
There was no political representation in the entire state, especially in the Valley, in the first seven years of the 31-year-long terror violence in Kashmir.
There was no contact between the government and the people. The bureaucracy and security forces were engaged with open arms against terrorism only as per the instructions of the central government.
After 1990, for the first time Lok Sabha elections were held in Kashmir in 1994 and assembly elections were held in Jammu and Kashmir in 1996.
In these elections, the National Conference under the leadership of Dr. Farooq Abdullah emerged as the largest group.
From 1996 to 2002, Farooq Abdullah took an open front against separatists and Pakistani jihadis in Kashmir, demanding bombings on terrorist camps and sometimes drowning Hurriyat leaders in Jhelum.
The security forces brought terrorism to a dying state in Kashmir.During this a major development happened in Jammu and Kashmir, in 1999.
Mufti Sayeed formed PDP with Congress and on the other hand the then Chief Minister Dr. Farooq Abdullah passed a resolution of autonomy for Jammu and Kashmir in the state assembly, sent it to the central government.
The government of the then Prime Minister Late Atal Bihari Vajpayee put it in cold storage.
After this, the Center allegedly pushed the PDP and the PDP, while campaigning aggressively against Farooq Abdullah, proved his government to be anti-Kashmir and pro-Delhi.
Mufti held Farooq responsible for preparing STF against terrorists in Kashmir. The STF was later renamed as SOG-Special Operations Group.
Many sidelined separatists and terrorists also directly or indirectly associated with the PDP. Mufti Sayeed held everyone’s hand.
On one hand, he made an alleged pact with separatists and terrorists, and on the other hand, carried forward the alliance with Delhi.
He got the benefit of this after the 2002 elections. He had only 16 MLAs, but with the help of the then BJP government and Congress, he became the Chief Minister.
PDP and Congress formed a coalition government in Jammu and Kashmir.
After this, relations with terrorists and separatists became a means for many to gain entry into the government machinery, mainstream political parties and administration.
In this case, Waheed-ur-Rehman Para turned out to be the smartest.
It is a small part of a larger alliance, which would not have survived for even a second without the support of the Indian security and intelligence agencies and the party and the government.
