Author: Editorial
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: August 2, 2000
On the face of it, the
reports of terrorist killings in Jammu & Kashmir (J & K) that have
been pouring in since the attack on Amarnath pilgrims on Tuesday, may suggest
that the killers and their masters in Islamabad have gone berserk over
the possibility of peace returning to a State they have turned into a killing
field.
But those familiar with
their diabolical ways would recognize that their apparent madness represents
a brutal effort to scuttle the peace talks that are about to begin between
the representatives of the Government of India and the Hizb-ul Mujaheedin,
the militant outfit whose unilateral offer of a three-month-long ceasefire
New Delhi has accepted. They have four immediate tactical objectives.
The first is to provoke the Indian security forces into over-reaction which
will create anger in the valley and compel the Hizb-ul to disown the ceasefire.
The second is to convey to the Government that the Hizb- ul cannot deliver;
it has to deal with Pakistan and its creatures like the Lashkar-i-Toiba,
Harkat-ul Mujaheedin, Jaishe Mohammad and Al-Badr. The third is to
tell the people of J & K that supporting the Hizb-ul can invite severe
reprisals. The fourth is to create a communal divide in the valley
to drive out the Hindus and facilitate the spread of fundamentalist Islamic
terrorism.
The situation is doubtless
extremely complex and requires from India a carefully worked out strategy
and its intelligent and meticulous implementation. The main challenge
will be maintaining the ceasefire with the Hizb-ul while constantly increasing
the pressure on Pakistan-run terrorist outfits through relentless proactive
action. This in turn will require a high level of coordination between
the security forces and Hizb-ul supporters to ensure that the latter are
not attacked. Besides, the day may not far off when the Pakistan-run
fundamentalist Islamic militias would target the militants of the Hizb-ul
itself. This in turn may lead to greater cooperation between them
and the members of the security forces. Since the Hizb-ul is the
only militant organisation whose cadre is drawn from the valley, and since
the inhabitants of the latter are now clearly tired of the unending violence,
the result may well be united resistance to the mercenaries sent by Pakistan
by the Indian Army and Kashmiris. Should this happen, it may mark
the beginning of the end of Pakistan's proxy war against India.
All this, of course,
is in the realm of possibilities. The Hizb-ul leadership, which is
based in Kashmir, may well wilt under the intense pressure that will no
doubt be brought to bear on it by Islamabad to call off the ceasefire.
Whatever happens, the latest spate of killings show that what Pakistan
and its Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) want is not a just and peaceful
and solution to the Kashmir issue but the annexation of Kashmir by force
as a prelude to the balkanisation of India. It will be interesting
to not how the United States' reacts to the latest developments.
Meanwhile, Indian security forces cannot let their guard down. This
needs to be emphasised all the more because, as reported in these columns,
the killings at Pahalgam might have been averted had the warnings issued
by the Intelligence Bureau (IB) been adequately acted upon."
