How J&K is fighting back against terror
Is the tide turning in the Kashmir Valley? At first glance, the short answer is no. Ordinary Kashmiris remain opposed to Indian security forces. Beneath the surface though there are signs that the government’s “tough love” policy is paying dividends. Over 150 terrorists have been killed since the beginning of the year, nearly 60 in terror infested south Kashmir alone.
Intelligence sources estimate that there were around 250 hard-core terrorists operating in the Valley. Even with new recruits smuggled in from Pakistan, this year’s death toll of terrorists has significantly weakened the jihadis’ ability to strike in the Valley.
Distrust
A second key factor is the growing distrust between factions within the terrorists’ ranks. Zakir Musa’s defection from the Hizbul Mujahideen has been seen by some as the trigger for the spate of fatal terrorist encounters with the security forces. Significantly, there were no stone pelters to derail the operation that eliminated Pakistani national Abu Ismail, the terrorist who led the attack on Amarnath yatris in July 2017.
Just a day before his death last week, Hizbul charged Al-Qaeda’s local unit of being subverted by Indian intelligence agencies through payment of large sums of money. Similar accusations, though less credible, have been levelled against Zakir Musa who remains in the crosshairs of the security forces.
Posters have recently sprung up in Shopian accusing Musa of being an Indian agent. One carried the following message in Urdu: “This traitor is creating different outfits in league with the government. Initially, he was part of Hizbul and thereafter he joined hands with the government of India. He even termed Hurriyat wrong. Therefore, wherever you find him, kill him.”
The third key factor helping the security forces salami-slice Pakistani terrorists in the Valley is the increased coordination between the J&K police, the CRPF and the Indian army. Local area human intelligence, painstakingly built up, has helped corner several high-value terrorists, including the Laskhar-e-Taiba’s Abu Dujana.
Alarmed by the denudation of their terror machine in the Valley, the Pakistani army and ISI have redoubled their efforts to increase infiltration across the LoC, aided by cross-border firing to provide cover for terrorists crossing into the Valley. The autumn window though will close shortly. Winter snow will make infiltration harder.
The Modi government’s policy of tough love in the Valley is meanwhile beginning to pay off. Home minister Rajnath Singh’s four-day visit to the Valley was designed to calm frayed nerves. Local leaders like the Abdullahs have cynically used unrest in the Valley to score political points. The controversy over article 35A has proved especially handy.
To counter this, Rajnath Singh has deployed the government’s strategy of playing cat-and-mouse with trouble-makers in the Valley — in the J&K Assembly and outside. His conciliatory, though carefully anodyne statements, on Article 35A have been welcomed by most Kashmiris. Strong measures by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) against the Hurriyat leadership have strangled funding for Pakistani terrorists still active in the Valley.
Worries
Islamabad has other worries as well. It was taken aback by the fierce rhetoric from the US administration. Washington has not ruled out the use of drone attacks on terror safe havens on Pakistani soil. That will escalate tensions with Islamabad. So far US airstrikes have been along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. Air attacks on Pakistani territory would be a significant escalation, targeting the source of terror in Pakistan.
The recent BRICS declaration, endorsed by China, naming both LeT and JeM, has further unnerved Pakistan. The India-Japan joint declaration, also naming the two Pakistani Punjab-based terror groups, has added to Islamabad’s sense of isolation. It has leapt into the arms of China and is looking for support from a Russia disenchanted with India’s growing closeness to the US.
The India-Japan declaration on infrastructure joint ventures in India’s Northeast has irked China as well. The Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying warned during an official briefing:
“China and India are working on seeking a fair and reasonable settlement which can be accepted by both sides through negotiations. Under such circumstances, we believe that any third party should respect the efforts made by China and India to settle disputes through negotiations and any third party should not meddle in the disputes between China and India over territorial sovereignty in any form.”
Sovereignty
For a country that is building the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) in disputed Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), brazenly violating Indian sovereignty, Beijing’s position reeks of the brazen duplicity it has consistently displayed in international relations.
While Islamabad frets at its loss of leverage in the Valley, one sentence in the India-Japan joint declaration has worried it the most. The sentence refers to the need to hold accountable countries that have illegally supplied nuclear weapons technology to North Korea. Pakistan knows the finger of guilt points directly at itself.
North Korea’s nuclear capability was built by Pakistan transferring stolen nuclear technology to Pyongyang. This is now a menace to the US, South Korea, Japan and even China. The full weight of Pakistan’s nuclear theft and illegal transfer to North Korea has the potential to impact in the long term its relationship with chief patron China.
That will boost the spirits of India’s security forces as they hunt down the remaining Pakistani terrorists in a Valley where relative peace during the long upcoming winter is now a real prospect.
(Courtesy of Mail Today.)