A new upsurge in Kashmir valley terrorism
By K N Pandita
After July last, Kashmir Valley has witnessed an upsurge in terrorist activities. The attempts of infiltration by the jihadists have increased. Although many attempts have been foiled yet some have succeeded in escaping the vigilant eye of the security men guarding our borders.
It is now known to one and all that Pakistan’s quest for a ceasefire in February last was to buy time to reinforce her western front against the State forces of Afghanistan. Things became clear when in early autumn last the Afghan Taliban achieved successive victories in capturing town after town and finally making a decisive assault on Kabul where the elected President ran into hiding leaving the Afghans to their fate.
Two indicators show that the Biden administration had made up its mind to forge a big shift in the US-Afghan policy. One was either to overlook or encourage the State forces of Afghanistan to the desert, avoid fighting or hand over arms to the Taliban and take no action whatsoever. The second was to overlook Pakistani agencies infiltrating into Afghan State forces and administrative structure.
The US often spoke and attached undue importance to the role of Pakistan in promoting the Taliban to come to the negotiating table. It was Pakistan managing the Doha negotiations. Soon after President Biden assumed office, the Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken sent an offensive letter to President Ashraf Ghani. It was clear that Washington was shifting to another side.
The awkward haste and ugly departure of the US military establishment in Kabul days ahead of the scheduled time has been criticized by friends and foes of the US. The reason is that the policy planners in Washington did not take into consideration the repercussions on a global scale of such a move devoid of sanity and strategy. And the worst was that the US army left behind in Bagram airbase huge war material, sophisticated weapons, armed vehicles, helicopters, missiles and missile launchers, night vision telescopes, ammunition etc. all of which fell in the hands of the Taliban. News trickled down that Pakistan was purchasing the sophisticated weaponry at throw-away price and some Pakistani traders had bought the weapons in bulk and were selling these in the open market in Peshawar and other towns of Pakistan.
The chaos and confusion that struck Afghanistan with the departure of the American and NATO troops sent a message to the Pakistan-based jihadist groups as well as the Pakistan army that now was the time to beef up the anti-India proxy war in Kashmir and to label it as the handiwork of the Taliban and their Pakistani associates whom Pakistan calls non-state actors.
It has to be remembered that during the lull in border skirmishes owing to the ceasefire announced in February last, the ISI did much leg work as well as brain work in propagating IS-K ideology in the valley. Pakistan-based Theo-fascist organizations had been in cahoots with the IS-K for quite some time and they had spread out their network in the length and breadth of the valley. The branches had direct internet connectivity with the IS-K and the LeT and JeM, and in fact, their anti-India terrorist activities in Kashmir were regularly coordinated.
Several incidents of civilian trucks loaded with IEDs, and other combustible dangerous materials commandeered by the Pakistani jihadists in the garb of Kashmiri drivers were intercepted along the National Highway at various places from Kathua to Udhampur. But how many trucks and other vehicles carrying the prohibited material, arms, ammunition or even narcotics managed to give slip to the security personnel at the check posts along the National Highway is difficult to ascertain.
After all, arms and ammunition are delivered to Kashmir insurgents to keep the insurgency alive. The Pir Panchal route is used by them more often than other routes just because the jihadists have been able to motivate and brainwash the youth in the Rajouri-Poonch belt which is very close to PoK and is comparatively easier to traverse. This is the reason why Krishna Ghati in Poonch has been the relentless target of Pakistani rangers for shelling and firing and thus providing opportunities to the jihadist s to sneak into the Indian side.
After the fall of Kabul to the Taliban, Pakistan almost thrust Sirraju’d-Din Haqqani of the Haqqani network on the Taliban. The then ISI head flew into Kabul and tried his best to see that the post of prime minister was given to Sirraj Haqqani. However this was not acceptable to a majority of the top Taliban leaders, and the ISI chief managed to secure the portfolio of Home Ministry for Sirraj. It is the same Sirraj who, after the capture of Kabul had said that after Kabul the agenda of the Taliban was Kashmir.
The capture of Kabul, the heaven-sent booty of highly sophisticated weaponry, the entreaties of big powers like the US and Russia to make the Taliban commit to no use of Afghan land for the proliferation of terrorist activities in other countries, releasing thousands of criminals from the jails of Afghanistan and exodus of refugees in large numbers from Afghanistan all conveyed a message to the Pakistan-based jihadist organizations that their Pan-Islamic mission, the ghazavatul Khurasan and the establishment of Islamic Caliphate was almost coming true and that the time had come when they should accelerate their role in widening the terrorist activities in Kashmir.
A new strategy was devised. The ISI instructed the jihadists to begin selective killing of the Kashmiri Hindus and Sikhs and also non-Kashmiri Muslims in the valley. The purpose of killing the Hindus and Sikhs was to send a message to these communities that they will not be tolerated in Kashmir because India proposes “changing the demographic complexion” of Kashmir. The purpose of killing the non-local zed and (from Bihar or UP) who were coming to the valley as labourers and working on farms and orchards was to tell them that they are Indian agents and hence are not acceptable.
It is true that after the killing of a Pandit pharmacist, a teacher and a Sikh Principal woman, a wave of fear overtook the minority community. Some groups of local Muslims did come out to instil courage and patience among the fear-stricken minority community out of human sentiment but they could not do much as the society stands criminalized and radicalized. And that was the aim of ISI.
The security forces in the valley have, therefore, intensified counter-terrorism action and many terrorists have been liquidated. Many OGW has been identified and arrested. A huge fund of incriminating records, computer material, mobile telephone storage and linkages has come to the hands of the security forces. These are being pursued and the culprits indulging in anti-national activities will have to be brought to the book.
The important question is what do these insurgent elements in Kashmir want. They have been dancing to the tune of a foreign country just because they consider a religious link to that country. India is the second-largest Muslim inhabited country in the world. Will these youth answer a simple question: is Pakistan an Islamic country? If religion was the binding force, Bangladesh would not have split; the Pakistan army would not have slain nearly 78,000 people of Waziristan; it would not have massacred nearly five million Bengalis and raped there million of their women all Muslim and now Pakistan would not applaud China for all the suppression and oppression of 2.5 crores Sunni Uighurs of Eastern Turkistan. Let us not talk about the treatment meted out to the Baluch and Sindhi Sunnis or the Shias and Ahmadis of Pakistan.
Kashmiris ought to know that the US is now looking to Pakistan as the redeemer of her Afghan debacle. So Washington puts all eggs in one basket. The Taliban are fiercely nationalist. In regard to adherence to Islamic tenets, they are next to none. Therefore, sooner than later the US and Pakistan both will find their selves abandoned by the Taliban. A new configuration will appear and India should never think that her role in Afghanistan has come to a dead end.
As long as Kashmiris continue to dance to the tune of foreigners and bid goodbye to their common sense and independent thinking, the Kashmir conundrum continued to simmer.