M. M Khajooria
Pakistan has cast aside the fig leaf of “moral and diplomatic” support to “struggle for right of self -determination in Kashmir.”. A reckless and an insecure Prime Minister, Nawaz Shrief publically owned up the self -proclaimed terrorist Burhan Wani, a high school drop out who suddenly emerged about a year back on the Kashmir terrorist scene with some of his hangers-on flaunting images on the social media clad in military fatigues holding latest weapons and displaying their identity placards. The hyper-active terrorist was also anointed by the Pak Prime Minister as a hero, a leader of Kashmir and martyr to the cause. Carried away by his own rhetoric he called for observance of ‘Black Day’ across Pakistan to protest the terrorists’ killing by Indian security forces. In Muzaferabad, the capital of PoK he declared ” Am waiting for Kashmir to become Pakistan”. Earlier Gen, Raheel Shrief , the Chief of Pak Army had termed Kashmir ( read Jammu and Kashmir).as ” the jugular vein of Pakistan , the unfinished Agenda of Partition ( of India), for securing which Pakistan was willing to pay any price” .
While Nawaz was fretting and fuming there was a twist in the macabre tale. On the centre stage para-dropped Dawa chief and Lashkar-i-Toiba Supremo, Hafiz Sayed, a UN named terrorist carrying US bounty of ten million dollars on his head and the master mind of Mumbai 26/11 carnage and stole the show . The Hafiz called upon the Pakistan Government to “take advantage” of the prevailing situation in Kashmir. Nawaz Shrief dutifully unleashed an anti India tirade in UNO and directed his ambassadors across the world “to brief their respective governments about the Indian atrocities and massive violation of human rights in Kashmir.”
That Hafiz Syed and his Lashkar were actively involved in planning and conducting terrorist operating in India, especially in Jammu and Kashmir was no secret .As already recorded in earlier write ups, the United Jehad Council convened conclave in Mzzaferabad some time in the end of January or beginning of February 2014 had decided that;
1. All terrorist operations in Kashmir will henceforth be conducted/ directed by Lashkar-e-Toiba.
2. The responsibility for these operations will, however be claimed by Hizab – ul-Mujahideen an ‘indeginous Kashmiri outfit’ so as to generate the impression that these strikes were integral to the “Kashmiri freedom struggle”.
3. Hafiz[i] Syed, who also participated in the conclave agreed to personally oversee the mobilisation for and conduct of these terror operations as well as to maintain liaison with Pak ISI and global terrorist networks.
4. Mohd Yusuf alias Syed Slah-ud-Din will continue to be the titular chief of the United Jehad Council.
The events preceding and following the elimination of Burhan Wani traversed the pattern envisaged in the conclave. The Lashkar commander Abu Judana was carried by Burhan supporters on shoulders in Burhans’ funeral procession .He vowed to carry forward the “war of independence in which Burhan had fallen a martyr”. Lashkar cadres were prominent in ‘Street Action’. Hafiz Syed and Slah-ud-Din jointly led feverish anti India tirade in Pakistan which included the highly provocative march to Wagah Indo- Pak border and demonstrations against Indian Home Minister Raj Nath Singh , a guest of Pakistan Government who arrived in Pakistan on an invitation to attend the SAARC Home Ministers Conference
Back home in Kashmir, Lashkar posters detailing programme of “public action” appeared in Kashmir for the first time since eruption of full blown terrorism in J and K in 1998 It left no one in doubt as to who was in command.
The ground for the grand thrust had been meticulously and determinedly prepared by Wahbi/ Salafi International through Jmmat-Ahil-i-Hadish. In an article titled “Mehbooba Mufti takes fundamentalist disruptionists head on ” I had quoted Abdul Rehman Bhat, General Secretary of Jamait Ahel Hadith who claimed in a prèss interview in 2014 that “A decade back we had 150 mosques and thirty schools. The total number of membership of the organisation was 2,000-3,000 today we manage 700 mosque and 150 schools and membership has gone to 1,50,0000.” So as to leave no doubt about their international affiliation he declared “We are running two Trusts, -the Sulfiain Educational and Research Trust which manages educational programmes and the Waqf Tanzeem Trust that looks after the mosques and the organization” and warned that ” , …the Wahabi/ Salafi cult they preach is the ideological bed- rock of Pan Islamist terrorism. In fact, strategic deployment of the Jahadi Gun in aid of the Cult Pulpit was integral to the very scheme of furthering the cause in a conflict situation like the one obtaining in Kashmir.”I had further stated that.” Their reach , sources suggest extends to the State apparatus through conversions of officials not excluding those occupying high positions . This should be a matter of concern.” Could one be more explicit? The warning was ignored both by the State and Central leadership. And the people of Kashmir and the nation are paying for their sin . To put it bluntly what the security forces including Jammu and Kashmir Police gained at tremendous cost including martyrdom of our officers and men in the counter terrorist operations was squandered away by politicians on ideological front. The credit should , however go to CM Mehbooba Mufti, the first politician to join battle on behalf of Etkadees. In her reply to the discussion on Governors’ address in the Legislative Council the other day she assailed separatists and militants for doing disservice to Islam by stone pelting every Friday and killing innocent people. “These people have given a bad name to religion of Islam. Pelting stones and slitting throat with a knife is no Islam..”. “Our Islam” she asserted “is the one that came to us from Shah- e-Hamdan and Nund Rishi”. She is currently persisting with this theme.
The PDP contested elections on the plank that Modi and his “communal BJP” was not to be allowed a foot hold in Kashmir. The electorate responded positively and gave the party an unprecedented mandate. They obviously could not be expected to approve the PDP forming coalition with the ‘hated BJP/ RSS’ . The arrangement generated a wave of disillusionment and anger which was stoked by rabid anti-Muslim statement by elements within BJP and Sangh Parivar talking of ‘Muslim Mukat Bharat’, ‘Ghar Wapsi’ and ‘Love Jehad’ etc. As no action was taken against them either by the Central Government or BJP leadership , both were perceived to be complicit . The PDP leaderships’ silence enhanced the insecurity, apprehensions and anger . Even liberal Kashmiris began to nurse a sense of regret for the decision to accede to “Secular India rejecting theocratic Pakistan” .Indian image as a secular state had been sullied. . The seething anger and massive alienation from India as well as the PDP was ignored by the PDP leadership but fully exploited by the enemy. Even though Mehbooba won the by-election in Anantnag Constituency where about only thirty percent votes were cast , the signal of public disapproval was loud and clear during campaigning.
Permissiveness achieved a new high and law enforcement touched the rock bottom when the State practically permitted public defiance of the High Court directive to enforce the law prohibiting cow slaughter existing on the statue since decades . Elsewhere in the country murders were committed on suspicion of possessing beef. The flying of Pakistan and ISI flags was practically legitimised forgetting that these were not mere pieces of cloth but symbols of the most poisonous , brutal and dangerous Wahabi/ Salafi terrorist ideology as well as that of Abu Bagdadi led Pan-Islamic caliphate spreading its deadly tentacles across the globe sucking in vulnerable Muslim youth , Kashmir was one of its favoured flagged destination. More significantly, for over a year the Indian state was perceived to be on retreat in Kashmir. Indian Army , its strong arm the ultimate instrument for asserting the state authority was being systematically demonetised by the Kashmir political class more pertinently by the main -stream political parties ,one in power and the other the main opposition in the State Assembly. The bigger tragedy was that the Government of India abetted this crime against itself by some acts of commission but mostly by omission. I would prefer not to go into specifics.
The disastrous implications of crowds appearing in streets with women in lead to the accompaniment of anti-India and Pro-Azadi/Pakistan slogans that blared from the mosque loud speakers aimed at obstructing counter-terrorist operations, anti-army demonstration after the killing of the terrorists and massive funeral processions of slain terrorist including foreign terrorists should have sounded the alarm bells. But did not. Even the obvious that the three pronged thrust was an integrated strategic punch failed to register. Consequently the responses were segmental, lukewarm and inadequate
. The targeting of individual unarmed policemen in public was the final indication that some major ‘Street Action’ was around the corner. The situation was thus ripe for Pakistan and her Pan-Islamist mentors to mount a major assault. The elimination of Burhan Wani came as a God sent and what followed was making history.
The harsh facts and verifiable inputs enumerated above would need to be factored into any politico-strategic determination for retrieving the fast worsening situation in Kashmir which now threatens to spill over to the contiguous areas of Jammu region. The sensitivity of the situation and high national stakes do not repeat not admit of the usual deniability and false and farcical postulates, It should be remembered that the on-going spell of violence is but a milestone in the Jihadi journey which commenced in 1947 with Pakistan mobilising and unleashing tribals from un-administered areas on the Pak-Afghan border in the name of Jehad and promise of freedom to loot and rape . This had since morphed into full blown Wahabi version of Jehad reducing Pakistan to the status of the minor player – the side -kick. The present upsurge is certainly neither the first nor the last round. The nation should therefore be armed with both short-term and long term responses to a grave challenge to its integrity indeed, the very idea of the India.
