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CNN Live Saturday

Kashimiris May Be Wary of Pakistani Militants

Aired June 01, 2002 - 18:04   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: India blames Pakistan for letting militants cross the border to commit terror attacks. Inside Kashmir, the Indian military says that militants are surrendering because of the backgrounds of others getting involved.

CNN has not been able to independently confirm whether those involved are militants, where they're from or why they surrendered. CNN's Kasra Naji reports on one group said to be militants giving up the fight.

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KASRA NAJI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Twenty-one Kashmiri Islamic militants surrendering to the Indian army at a ceremony not far from the line of control, the line that divides Kashmir within Indian and Pakistan.

The army says the men were disillusioned because they feel they're fight for freedom in Kashmir has been taken over by Islamic militants from Pakistan, which commits atrocities against civilians in the name of Kashmir.

Reporters were invited to the ceremony, and CNN could not independently confirm whether the men were Indian militants, or if they were, under what circumstances they surrendered.

Under the watchful eye of army officers, we talked to the militants, including their commander.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When I look back at the 14 years I spent as a terrorist, I realized I haven't achieved anything, nor am I going to achieve anything in the future for Kashmir. The second point is that the foreign militants are coming here now and they want to, you know, take over the militants here. So they won't do any good for Kashmir.

NAJI: This man says he surrendered after realizing that he was destroying Kashmir with his own hands. The commander of the Indian army in Kashmir told me that militants were also losing public support.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now the new development is that local population also realizes that what the terrorists are doing and their mentors, real mentors across the borders -- it is not in the larger interests of the people here.

NAJI: This is not the first of such ceremonies. Observers say there have been many surrendering ceremonies like this before, with one message, that local people, even the militants, are fed up with the militants coming from across Pakistan.

Kasran Naji, CNN, Kufhara (ph), Indian controlled Kashmir.

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