On
a mild Sunday evening, residents of the city of Muzaffarabad, capital
of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, were startled by the sound of massive
explosions that shook the ground and rattled window panes for miles
around. The explosions continued for an incredible two hours. "Panic
gripped the residents as the blasts, which began around 6pm IST,
continued for about two hours," the president of Jammu &
Kashmir National Students Federation, Mehmood Beigh, told Times of
India from Muzaffarabad over phone. The Times report [28 Aparil 2008]
went on to say that the explosions were the result of a fire
engulfing the main ammunitions dump of the terrorist organisation
Lashkar-e-Taiyba. The correspondents said the terrorist camp is
located inside the limits of Muzaffarabad Municipal Corporation at
Chila Bandi near Shaive canal. "ISI and police have blocked all
roads leading to the camp. Journalists and common people aren’t
being allowed into the area," he said.
According to the
news report, “another top-ranking Muzaffarabad-based JKNSF
leader, Raja Saba, said Pakistani authorities are unlikely to ever
accept that the blasts actually took place, as it would expose the
Pakistan government’s lies about the nonexistence of terrorist
camps in Muzaffarabad. Muzaffarabad-based journalist Tariq Naqqash
said, "Apparently, LeT cadres have stopped even the police and
the local administration officials from entering the area."
They are being stopped about half a km from the blast site, he added.
"I am waiting for an official statement but the authorities are
tight-lipped." Arif Shahid — of All-Party National
Alliance, a leading organisation against Pakistan rule in PoK —
said terror camps continue to train hardcore terrorists for jihad in
Kashmir.”
"We’ve been crying ourselves hoarse
and asking Islamabad to throw these jihadis out of our land. We don’t
want them here. But our repeated pleas have been falling on deaf
ears," he said. "Extremist elements in Pakistan continue to
lure the youths towards jihad. Not just this, ISI continues to get
foreign nationals — Afghans, Saudis and Arabs — for
Kashmir jihad." He said the training camps were running under
the garb of hospitals. Kashmiri nationalists, resenting Islamabad’s
occupation of PoK, have been running campaigns against the terror
camps. In 2007, JKNSF organised a march against terrorist camps in
PoK after LeT terrorists abducted a Muzaffarabad University student.
There are believed to be at least 36 jihadi training camps in PoK,
housing about 3,660 cadres. Majority of these camps are located in
Muzaffarabad and Kotli. LeT maintains, among others, the Danna and
Abdul-Bin-Masud camps in Muzaffarabad and Badli camp in Kotli with
500, 300 and 300 jihadis respectively. Similarly, Hizbul has, among
others, the Jangal Mangal camp in Muzaffarabad and another one at
Mangla with at least 300 cadres each.”
This report cannot but be a cause of concern for Kashmiris, who today are struggling to bring back peace and normalcy in their land. The portents, however, are ominous.
A recent report (28 April 2008) prepared by the US-based think tank, Stratfor, said that Pakistan is seeing the reappearance of several banned Kashmiri militant groups. According to the report the “reappearance of these groups is part of a broader shift in the long history of Pakistan's involvement with militant proxies.” The Stratfor report was based on a news item in the prestigious Pakistan daily, The Dawn of 25 April 2008, where it was claimed that “several banned Kashmiri militant groups are resurfacing in major Pakistani cities. Members of prominent groups like Harkat ul Mujahideen, al Badr, Harkat-e-Islami, Jaish-e-Muhammad and Hizbul Mujahideen reportedly are setting up new offices, changing their names, putting up flags and posters, holding large rallies, and delivering sermons in mosques to publicize the groups' activities.”
The Dawn report said that the Harkat ul Mujahideen has relocated its base from Islamabad to the city outskirts in Rawalpindi and is considering renaming itself Ansar-ul-Ummah, while Jaish-e-Muhammad is still deciding on a name change. The report also claimed that most of this activity is taking place in the port city of Karachi, and that the groups probably will be reactivated by mid-May. These groups are seizing the opportunity to come out from hiding while the newly elected Pakistani government remains in flux.
The Stratfor report says that “this apparent revitalization of Pakistan's Kashmiri militant groups probably also is taking place with a wink and a nod from the country's military and security apparatus. According to the Strafor analysis “Pakistan is located in a strategic stretch of the Islamic belt. The country's Islamist-nationalist foundation combined with a mountainous and sparsely populated periphery creates a natural hotbed for Islamist militancy that Islamabad has long made use of in its dealings with its neighbors. India has been Pakistan's primary threat since their 1947 partition...In 1989, efforts by the Pakistani intelligence agency known as Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to establish these Kashmiri groups came to light when a popular uprising - swiftly exploited by Pakistan - broke out in the Vale of Kashmir against Indian rule. The uprising allowed militant cells steadily to make their way into India from Pakistan to carry out attacks. Pakistan's use of these groups reached a peak in the 1999 Kargil war, when Islamist Kashmiri insurgents under the thumb of the ISI helped Pakistani forces infiltrate the Line of Control into Indian territory.”
“Soon after al Qaeda moved against the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, the Pakistani government came under the spotlight for its ties to al Qaeda and the Taliban. Under pressure from both the United States and India, the Pakistani government had to work to create the impression that it was indeed distancing itself from these militant proxies, including those fighting on behalf of Kashmir. As a result, many of these groups officially were banned by the Pakistani government, and thus were forced to go underground and operate under different names. Pakistan intended for the crackdown to occur mainly on the surface, however. Every now and then a Kashmiri militant leader would be placed under house arrest and then released a few days later. Government addresses were made on television condemning several of the militant groups while the militant leaders continued to collect donations through charity organizations. Official bans were announced on the groups' activities while attacks in Kashmir continued, albeit at a lower tempo. While Islamabad had to keep up appearances with New Delhi and Washington, it also had a strategic need to maintain a working relationship with these groups both for its own security as well as for its grand strategy in dealing with Afghanistan and India. But over time, al Qaeda's influence over these groups expanded, making it all the more difficult for Pakistan to distinguish between the 'good' and 'bad' jihadists. The groups handled by the ISI either complied with Islambad's wishes and brought down the level of attacks, went rogue, joined up with transnational jihadist forces like al Qaeda, or tried to strike a tenuous balance between the ISI and al Qaeda. As a result, Islamabad's grip over these sundry Islamist militants gradually loosened, and the militants that it formally had on its payroll started turning on the state. Pakistan now has reached the stage where its primary threat has emanated from its own borders, namely, a raging Islamist insurgency seeking to topple the Pakistani state and establish an Islamic polity.”
The Stratfor report goes on to argue that “political developments over the past year, particularly the debacle of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's efforts to contain dissent within the judiciary and his Red Mosque crackdown only have exacerbated the backlash from the government's anti-militant maneuvers. It was thus only a matter of time before the military and security establishment reassessed their militant management strategy. “ The report has suggested that “Pakistan needs to put a lid on the jihadist presence concentrated in its Federally Administered Tribal Areas, the North-West Frontier Province and the Pashtun corridor in northwestern Balochistan province. Naturally, this is easier said than done, and the newly elected government in Islamabad still is trying to figure out exactly how to go about striking the nearly impossible balance between negotiations with militant leaders and airstrikes against militant strongholds. But a key part of this strategy does involve shifting the militant focus from Afghanistan back to Kashmir, which explains the re-emergence of Kashmiri militant groups in major Pakistani cities.”
The Stratfor report concludes by pointing out that the revitalisation of “Pakistan's Kashmiri militant node naturally is a cause for alarm in New Delhi. Since 9/11, India has been quite content to see Pakistan too busy to pursue an aggressive strategy in Kashmir. But if Pakistan is now making a concerted effort to shift the militant tide to Kashmir, current Indian military strategies will need to shift as well...Pakistan is entering a new phase in its militant proxy saga, and the reported re-emergence of Kashmiri groups in Pakistan is likely just the beginning.”
Sadly,
the re-emergence of such violence auger well either for the
subcontinent or for the Muslims of the region. On 25th
February 2008, thousands of Muslims scholars had gathered at
Darul-Uloom, the subcontinent's biggest centre of Islamic theology.
The scholars unanimously declared that "Islam sternly condemns
all kinds of oppression, violence and terrorism." A three-page
resolution said: "Unleashing violence or spreading terror or
killing people is not only a serious sin but is also a heinous
crime." The head of Darul-Uloom, Maulana Marghoobur Rahman,
said terrorist acts fell under the "shirk category of sins",
for which there is no pardon. Lambasting the Western nations' role in
"oppressing" Muslims in Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan and
Bosnia, the resolution urged the Indian government not to be
influenced by the West. "It is for the first time that
representatives of more than 4,000 madrasah and all prominent Islamic
institutions of the country have unanimously condemned acts of terror
and all types of violence," said Maulana Khalid Rasheed, head of
the Lucknow-based Firangi Mahal. He hoped that the conference edict
would have its desired impact on India's neighbours, especially
Pakistan, where suicide and terror bombings have left hundreds dead.
Bashir-ud-din, the Grand Mufti of Kashmir, has supported the Deoband
declaration, reiterating that Islam doesn't allow the killing of
innocent people.
[ends]