Arun Joshi
There were two significant statements made by high officials of J&K police – DGP Dilbag Singh said that “militancy in Jammu and Kashmir is down but not out,” and police head of Jammu province Additional Director General of Police Mukesh Singh revealed that two to three terrorist groups were active in twin border districts of Rajouri and Poonch of the region. There was a ring of reality to these statements, shorn of rhetoric that terrorism has been wiped out of the territory, but that goal is yet to be achieved.
In the run up to Independence- Day on August 15, entire Kashmir, in particular, the capital city of Srinagar is in a security blanket, almost on a similar scale as that used to be in 1990s when the militancy was its peak – and when dozens of people were killed on daily basis, and the dictates of separatists and militant groups used to compete who can make their writ run. Now when the scenario has changed and the normalcy has become a new norm in Kashmir, the drones flying in sky and almost every one the streets frisked to core , sit at odds with the claims that all the threats of terrorism have been eliminated. There still is fear of terror spoiling the I-Day celebrations . It is indeed necessary, and duty of the security agencies to ensure that the national festival passes off peacefully. Precautions sit with that perception and they are also aware that Pakistan has not given up its malware intentions on Kashmir. It continues to look for even the smallest of opportunity and opening to revive militancy in Kashmir.
At this point in time, there are certain grim realities; three soldiers were killed in an encounter in South Kashmir’s Kulgam district, four infiltrators were killed along the Line of Control that divides J&K between India and Pakistan, and one terrorist in Rajouri encounter. The killing of soldiers is a demonstrative setback. This shows that terrorists were not only present, but also continue to inflict wounds on the body-politic.
As compared to the previous years, the number of incidents have drastically come down, and the situation of today is miles ahead of what it was, say four years ago when gun fire, grenade attacks and killings were almost a daily norm. Politically, and security wise, the credit is given to August 5, 2019 decision of abrogation of Article 370. ,
But the fact remains that the security agencies cannot turn their eyes off from the reality as it they who have to fight the terrorists and remove fear of terrorists from the body-politic. Apart from spotlighting the challenges that remain for the security agencies, these also point to prevalence of malware in the territory, exported from across the border – Pakistan, and downloaded by certain sections within the land. This points out to the fact that either this downloading process is due to the ideological affinity with the exporters or the fear of them, or more seriously, is it because of fault lines dotting the landscape.
Infiltration from across the LoC is handiwork of Pakistan , as without the support and patronage of Pakistani army and whatever the political power counts there , this is impossible . The claim that the non-state actors operate on their own is misrepresentation of facts . No state actor , as the terror groups operating from Pakistani soil, are concerned can operate without the support of the state. The so-called non-state actors Lashkar-e—Toiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad , Al Badr – are very much part of the state of Pakistan .
This infiltration has yet another aspect – that is infiltrators come with an intention to kill and spread violence , and their area is not limited to LoC. They tend to reach the hinterland where they strike at their targets , some chosen by their mentors , others about which they decide after having entrenched themselves in the villages or towns deep inside the territory . The infiltrators , if they are locals, it can be understood , that they have their families or relatives and they survive till the time they get eliminated in encounters or surgical operations by security forces . Others – Pakistani terrorists – find help and facilitation in the support system created by Pakistan and its sympathizers in the region. . That is borne out of two facts – ( a) the vested interests who are paid for or coerced into creating space for the militants , ( b) the alienated sections that derive sadistic pleasure in helping militants of all hues – local or Pakistanis . There also is element of radicalism involved .
It is the second part which is more worrying . Paradoxically , it is the easiest one to address , and it is also the most difficult if the alienation is papered over by the rhetoric of denial , and claim that the things are hunky dory . The separatism , and its roots , when born out of historical reasons , or narratives that have been part of the psychology of conflict , need an emotion-oriented political approach , the administrative approaches can never fill this gap. Jammu and Kashmir has been a classic example of the failures of the pure administrative approaches seeking to replace alienation with mainstreaming ..
As regards the border population which lives in the eight districts of the international border and LoC – three districts in the plains of Jammu , five others along the LoC are in the Pirpanjal range in Jammu division and the Kashmir Valley. This population is very critical to the security of the borders and also devising a human wall against the infiltration – that is the psyche to repulse the infiltration , as without their knowledge , and silence, infiltrators cannot reach hinterland . It also is a fact that the infiltrators get their shelter and food in some sections of this population . It needs a calibrated strategy in which emotional connect with them holds key to addressing the menace of infiltration and tackling the terrorism once and for all That is the time when militancy can be both down and out in the real sense .
