JAMMU, May 30: Relegating its ``azadi'' slogan to the back burner, the faction-ridden All Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC) has now started raising the issue of alleged human rights violations on the part of Indian security forces to attract the attention of the international community towards Kashmir.

To lend credence to its tirade against the security forces fighting pro-Pakistan terrorists in the Valley, political observers here feel that the APHC seems to have persuaded various local organisations to join them in their campaign. As a result, the APHC's two-day bandh this month against human rights violations was followed by a suspension of publications by the print media in the Valley. To add to this, the State Government Employees Union and the Transport Union in the Valley also called for a strike on different occasions on the same subject. Their calls were, incidentally, supported by the APHC.

Significantly, all the bandh calls came after the shifting of the Civil Secretariat from Jammu to Srinagar. According to sources, the latest in the fray to schedule a bandh in the Valley are the traders' organisations.

``The more noise you make about human rights violations, the more you attract the attention of the world community,'' said the state's retired director general of police, M M Khajuria.

Virinder Gupta, a Jammu University professor and a political analyst, feels that the APHC has started raking up the issue of human rights violations only to keep its folk together. Moreover, it wants to put the otherwise elected State Government on the defensive by raising the human rights issue, he said.

Political observers said that the APHC was desperately trying to show its strength after having failed to dissuade people from participating in the last Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in the State.

Meanwhile, the State Government, which the APHC planned to put on the defensive, also came out with a statistical data about human rights violations by terrorists.

Criticising the APHC's latest agenda, an official spokesperson here asked it to make its position clear about the killing of over 5,800 innocent people by militants since 1990 in the State. The Government, on its part, investigated 2,600 complaints of human rights violations from January 1992 to September 1996.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.