An Armyman stands guard near the Army brigade camp during a terror attack in Uri, Jammu and Kashmir, on Sunday. (Photo: PTI)
An Armyman stands guard near the Army brigade camp during a terror attack in Uri, Jammu and Kashmir, on Sunday. (Photo: PTI)
Getting increasingly exposed and isolated, Pakistan’s rising desperation appears to be driving it to ensure that wherever it is possible in urban centres of the Kashmir Valley, keep the pressure sustained by inciting the populace to riot on the streets and simultaneously use disguised Pak Army or its highly trained terrorists to strike across the Line of Control (LoC). Meanwhile, it aims to generate a high flow of propaganda through social media to convey that all of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) is aflame owing to excesses by the Indian state and its security forces.
The very well-planned and well-timed September 18 pre-dawn attack on the Indian Army in Uri is yet another classic example of asymmetric warfare, when a change of infantry battalions was taking place. While two personnel of the outgoing battalion were killed, 15 jawans of the incoming battalion, asleep in tents, bore the brunt of fire by the heavily armed terrorists or Pak Army soldiers disguised as terrorists. Even if all four terrorists got killed, there are more available for similar repeats, to continue a “low intensity war” at a very low cost.
New Delhi’s reactions of getting into a ministers-Army brass huddle and rushing the Army Chief to J&K, followed by standard statements in media is not the answer. The Uri attack is one of a series of attacks launched over the past months, including in the period when the people of Kashmir, particularly youth have been even mobilised by the “separatists” (read traitors) and their network to maintain the momentum of rioting and targeting policemen and police stations. After years of Army’s presence at the LoC and security forces in the hinterland eliminating many trained Pakistani terrorists resulting in relative peace with good tourist seasons and business, Pakistan’s clear aim is to try to turn the clock back to the late 1980s to mid 1990s situation.
The pressing requirement now is at least three-fold and requires long overdue political will. For stopping the rioting mayhem in the Valley, first and most vital is to separate the separatists and their network from the Kashmiri public by putting all of them behind bars in other states.
Second, strike effectively at terrorists’ concentration camps in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, which is legally Indian territory and is illegally occupied by Pakistan.
This must be done by accurate bombardment and, ideally, followed by launching covert special operations. Panel discussions on TV networks are not going to stop further such attacks.
Pakistan has enough of retired star rank officers to dole out lies and stupid arguments over cacophonic discussions to waste our time.
Third, India must launch a vigorous and sustained campaign on social media to educate the young and remind the older people of J&K about all of Pakistan’s misdoings that have led to Kashmiri peoples’ undoing.
For the first time in the Kashmir Valley, Id prayers were not held at Srinagar’s famous Hazratbal shrine and people were asked to offer prayers at local mosques. Markets, bakeries and sweet shops were mostly closed or were opened for few hours.
Shepherds who waited the whole year to sell sheep and goats for the Id sacrifice said there were no customers. Who is to blame House arrested separatists are organised enough to issue calendars with schedules and instructions for rioting. Separatists also urged protesters to block a national highway in the Valley. Eighty-six people have been killed and more than 10,000 injured in clashes between security forces and protesters that have raged across the Kashmir Valley since July 8, 2016.
But the Valley does not mean all of J&K, or all of its Kashmiri Muslim-inhabited areas. Over two months of Pakistan-inspired rioting in a major part of the Valley, the impression conveyed through media and social media is that the whole state is on the boil, which is far from the truth. Local newspapers also reported that Id was celebrated in many parts of the Valley. The Army and Border Security Force (BSF) were also much involved in Id celebrations. Many Army units observed the “festival of sacrifice” by reaching out to the underprivileged sections of society and offering them “sacrificial goats”, sweets and other gifts a defence spokesman said.
“A conscious effort was made to be with the underprivileged and bereaved children in orphanages in numerous places, including Qasbanagam, Bijbehara, Salar, Tral, Galandhar, Nambal, Wessu and Kakapora in south Kashmir and Nihalpura, Baramulla, Bemiyar, Pattan, Mantrigam,Wagura, Mazbugh and Seelu in north Kashmir,” he said.
The Army in remote areas along the Line of Control in Gulmarg, Uri, Tangdhar, Keran, Machhal and Gurez sectors also joined the people in celebrating the festival. The Jammu & Kashmir Light Infantry (JAKLl) Regimental Centre, Rangreth, also witnessed a confluence of soldiers and locals from a wide cross-section of society. Similar initiatives were also undertaken in Zangli, Kupwara, Shalateng, Awantipura, Bandipura, Anantnag and several other areas.
J&K has several valleys such as the Kashmir Valley, Tawi Valley, Chenab Valley, Poonch Valley, Sind Valley and Lidder Valley. The main Kashmir valley is 100 km wide and 15,520.3 sq kms in area out of a total of 101,387 sq kms. Jammu with an area of 26,293 sq kms amounts to 25.93 per cent of the state. With Ladakh, measuring 59,146 sq kms/58.33 per cent of the total area of the state, it really should have been named Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh. The distribution of 22 districts of J&K is 10 each of Jammu and the Kashmir Valley and two of Ladakh.
Yet, for 68 years since Independence/Partition, J&K has been connoted more as Kashmiri Muslim, while giving other communities short shrift. It reflects pathetically on the Government of India, which from 1990 to 2011 at least could not prevent over 400 Kashmiri Pandits from being killed by terrorists, aided or abetted by separatists and over 4,00,000 of them fleeing the Valley to become refugees and many still not resettled. Even now the separatists organise slogans like “Hindus leave your women and get out of Kashmir”, or words to that effect.
And after innumerable terrorist attacks on Army, police and civil populace in J&K by Pakistan, all we have heard are worn-out clichés. How many more attacks/deaths/injuries/insults will we accept before the government’s pre-election promises and national security ideology are translated into effective action
The writer, a retired Army officer, is a defence and security analyst based in New Delhi
