Testing Times Ahead in J&K

http://www.millenniumpost.in/opinion/opinion-249100

On Shab –e- Qadr, the night of seeking the blessings  of Allah, a band of agitated stone pelters took away the life of a fellow Kashmiri police officer who was on duty in Srinagar the summer capital of Jammu & Kashmir to ensure that the people who had gathered at the Nowhatta mosque in downtown area to offer night-long prayers and to make supplications, could do it peacefully.

The trouble reportedly started when Mohammed Ayub Pandith, a Dy Superintendent of Police posted in the Security Branch, was seen by some youth taking pictures of the Jamia Masjid mosque and the stone pelters. Being in a plainclothes wing of the police, the officer was in mufti or civil dress. The mob caught hold of the officer and to wriggle out of the clutches of the frenzied mob, Ayub fired from his service weapon injuring a few. This was provocation enough for the mob to attack and lynch him to death in one of the most gruesome and dastardly assaults on policemen in the recent times in the valley. It may be noted that Mirwaiz Umar Farooq was among those present at the Nowhatta mosque at the time of the lynching.

The sacrifice of the six bravehearts of the local police including the affable station house officer in Achabal in the south Kashmir is still fresh in the national memory. Like in the Punjab during its militancy, the policemen and their families in the state of J&K are also being now targeted by the terrorists and their sympathisers.  The state police are at the forefront of the anti-militant operations. In the last three decades of the militancy in the state, the local police have lost more than seven thousand members. Regardless of the setbacks, they have carried on with their fight against the militancy.

The Special Operations Group of J&K police is a highly motivated unit. As per the law, the rest of the forces are deployed in the Valley in aid of the civil administration. Coming from the same stock, the local police are vital to intelligence gathering and mounting of successful operations. They are led by an able officer in SP Vaid who belongs to the state and is known for his strategic acumen. These are no doubt hard times for the police and the security forces. But then their resilience and expertise and repertoire to deal with such anti national insurgencies is abundant. 

Friday was expected to be a fateful day in the light of the venomous diktat of the separatist leaders of the valley to protest after Friday prayers against the Indian genocide of the innocent civilians. Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Yasin Malik in a statement after the Pulwama encounter in which three militants were gunned down by the local police and the security forces, exhorted people to protest the “targeted killing” of the youth during the operation. The youth, “chronic stone-pelter” according to the police was killed during the violence which erupted after the burial of the slain militants in Kakapora Pulwama.

It can be termed as the bloodiest Ramzaan in the valley. Militant attacks have continued during the holy month forcing the security forces to retaliate. In all twenty seven militants were neutralized during the month. The militants killed nine policemen/security forces personnel and only six civilians lost their lives. The police and security forces have been avoiding use of lethal force against civilians who have been targeting the former on daily basis.

The militants have suffered several reversals following a hard stand against them and their sympathisers. It should be a worrying trend for the security forces that militants of different shades and tanzims are closing ranks to achieve synergy in their so called struggle for azadi and jihad. The presence of Jaish – e-Mohammed and Hizb militants at the burial of a slain Hizb area commander is a pointer towards that.

The masters of the militants across the border have unleashed a radicalisation and recruitment drive through the internet and social media. Propaganda against the idea of India is quite vociferous. The sub text now focuses more on religion based jihad than azadi for Kashmir. More than 200 such sites are operating from Pakistan itself. While the ground battle is being effectively fought by the security forces, the response in the cyberspace is far from desirable. Director general of police of J&K calls it cyber war and is alive to the situation. The stock response post an operation is to ban the social media or clamp down on the cyberspace for a while. Ban is just a first aid. What we need is a long-term treatment and response. All the security agencies, particularly the intelligence agencies have to come together to work on a systematic response to this threat which is resulting in further aggravation of the situation.

Counter propaganda and subversion measures also need to be devised at the earliest. Since the political parties have conceded space to hardliners and militants, there is a clear void in managing the public perception of alienation. The efforts of the government at the state and the national level to continue with a meaningful dialogue with the people of the valley also get nullified due to repeated incidents of violence against the civilians and the security personnel including the local police. There is a big section of Kashmiri society that abjures violence in favour of sufiism and Kashmiriyat. Brutal killings of Kashmiri policemen, who are seen as brethren by this section have created revulsion to the senseless violence by the militants. Intelligence agencies have to work with this section of society and further consolidate the numbers to counter war of perceptions. Working with women in the Valley may prove useful in conveying the message to the youth to abstain from the destructive path preached by the separatists. A beginning in this direction has to be made.

There may be more attacks on police stations and posts and its personnel in the coming days to weaken the will of the policemen to fight the militancy. Threats may be held out to the families. Police will have to be extra cautious about the safety of their colleagues in plainclothes. More armed vehicles are needed now in the valley. The police leadership and the state government need to ensure that the morale of the civil police in the state does not take a hit by the recent barbaric attacks on the policemen. The best the J&K police can do in this situation is to resolve to own the responsibility to restore normalcy in the state. This is quite doable. They have the Punjab model to inspire and emulate. 

A Timely Reversal Expected

http://www.millenniumpost.in/opinion/opinion-245932

 7 Jun 2017 9:14 PM |  New Delhi 

In the wee hours of Monday, there was a fidayeen attack on the camp of the 45th battalion of the Central Reserve Police Force at Sumbal in Bandipora, Kashmir. Heavily armed terrorists were aiming to repeat a Uri-like incident in Sumbal. However, the enemy failed in their nefarious designs. Thanks to an alert sentry who noticed them and soon raised the alarm, all the four fidayeen were immediately engaged in a fierce exchange of fire. After a gritty and tactically sound operation, the CRPF troops were able to neutralise all the four terrorists and recovered four AK series of rifles, one Under Barrel Grenade Launcher (UBGL), large quantities of grenades and ammunition. The high point of the operation was that the home side suffered no casualties. 

The CRPF leadership deserves a pat on the back for a successful operation. Tactically sound defences around the camp, alert sentries and quick response from the troops and officers who must be in a deep sleep when the intrusion was attempted, must make the Indian Army and all other security forces breathe a sigh of relief. In the recent past, Indian security personnel have been under a cloud of successful enemy penetrations in sensitive defence installations. The J&K Police also responded to the situation and made it impossible for the fidayeen to escape. 

From a security man's perspective, this successful operation is a morale booster in an otherwise glum security atmosphere in the Kashmir Valley. The Valley, some say, is on a boil, which is certainly not correct. There are some mischief mongers on the payrolls of the separatists and Pakistan who have been testing the patience of the security forces and provoking them to do something seriously wrong which will ultimately alienate the common man, fan the flames of separatism and lay the foundation for a Wahabi order. 

Peaceniks and some human rights activists may cry themselves hoarse over the situation, but it appears the current government at the Centre has a definite plan to resolve the K issue once for all. Several Central leaders and spokespersons have made it amply clear that the Indian state shall not hold parleys with those who have received large sums of funding from Pakistan and her deep state, the ISI. Several separatist leaders have been exposed accepting vast sums from Pakistani agents. The role of Dukhtaran – e-Millat in receiving napaak funds from Pakistan to destroy temples of learning and deny the right to education to thousands of impressionable students, while subsequently recruiting them as stone-pelters also stand exposed. The Central government deserves support from one and all in the country for its surgical financial strike on the Hurriyat and other terror proxies. 

The National Investigation Agency and Enforcement Directorate have been unleashed to investigate the ill-gotten riches of the separatists and bring them to book. Historically the separatists have acted as double agents receiving financial patronage from both the Indian government and its adversary in Pakistan. The highly pampered Hurriyat leaders and other separatists had not expected such heavy punching from the Indian "soft state". Yasin Malik has been arrested and the other two bigwigs namely Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq have been placed under house arrest. Some more stringent measures against other pro-Pakistan separatists will ease the situation in the Valley. 

The Centre has enunciated its no-nonsense Kashmir policy through the Army Chief Bipin Rawat. His frequent appearances in the Valley indicate the steely resolve of the government to deal with infiltration and militancy with an iron fist. While the Army and BSF solely manage the LoC, the Valley operations are shared by all the security forces. The mandate is very clear – liquidate infiltrators and militants of all shades but maintain utmost restraint while dealing with people. The bullet for bullet for militants policy shifts to pellets only doctrine for stone pelters and the misguided youth. Ground level intelligence has also shown improvement. Recent operations to neutralise cohorts of Burhan Wani are a pointer towards that. 

One worrying aspect of the Kashmir situation is the horrendous level of media discussion, particularly on the idiot box. One historian and economist sitting saat samundar paar and without first-hand knowledge of the situation has been economical with the truth in dubbing the recent 'human shield' incident as the 'General Dyer' moment in the Valley. Either he has no idea of the Jallianwala episode, or it is a deliberate attempt to add fuel to the fire. The debates on some channels on the telly are pathetic. Anchors are baying for blood, whipping up ultra-nationalism. The choice of their participants in the discussions is also worrisome. Most of them believe that the power of the argument lies only in the pitch of the voice! Deterioration in the use of diction can be seen all around. The editors on such channels may claim that they are hosting an objective debate by inviting Pakistani hawks and the Kashmiri separatists on their shows. But they forget that they are affording free airtime to the separatists' views slamming the Indian state for human rights violations and the alleged occupation of Kashmir by the Indian troops. These channels unwittingly become platforms for propaganda and subversion. Pakistani commentators choose their words very carefully addressing the Kashmiri population and their support to the Azadi idiom. There is a need for these channels and a section of the print media to be wary of such contributors and exercise restraint and show sobriety and maturity in dealing with the Kashmir issue. 

There is no denying the fact that the importance of dialogue can never be undermined. Spadework needs to be done before talks can be had with the real representatives of the people. Unfortunately, most of the political parties in Kashmir have conceded space to Islamist hardliners and to preserve their constituencies, and they are merely pedalling soft separatism. Whosoever is out of power is known to indulge in brinkmanship in Kashmir. 

The governments at the state and Centre and intelligence agencies need to operate their back channels to access the common man to gauge his mood and then devise methods to manage the perceptions. The misdeeds of separatist leaders should be driven home to save the gen next from radicalisation. A timely reversal of fortunes at Sumbal needs to be built upon by aggressive outreach programme. At any cost, the Kashmir issue should not be allowed to degenerate into an ISIS campaign run by self - radicalised youth and Pak-orchestrated militancy.

Read more at: http://www.millenniumpost.in/opinion/opinion-245932