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NATION,
KASHMIR
...And Jehad is
Back
The
realignment of militant groups with a fresh crop of foreign mercenaries
signals a flare-up of violence
By
Ramesh Vinayak
 With
the three-month cease-fire going awry sooner than the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen
or the Indian Government had bargained for, security agencies in Jammu
and Kashmir are preparing for the worst. They are worried not as much
by the return of the Hizb to the gun mode as by the ascendancy of foreign
mercenary-dominated outfits. Confronting Kashmir is the grim prospect
of these groups stepping up violence.
There is
an additional dimension. Pakistan has initiated what officials describe
as "Phase Two" of the campaign, giving a pan-Islamist dimension
to Kashmir militancy. Central to the game plan is the induction of a fresh
crop of Islamic jehadis under a new command.
Spearheading
the shift is Maulana Masood Azhar, the jailed fundamentalist who secured
his freedom under the Kandahar hostage deal. Azhar's Jaish-e-Mohammad
(JEM), floated in April this year, is a rallying point for most Pakistan-based
groups, except the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET) and the Hizb.
For the
ISI, Azhar is a great find. His skills as an organiser and his phenomenal
fund-raising abilities in Pakistan's Deobandi network apart, Azhar has
wide connections among the militant groups in Kashmir. His acquaintances
in his interrogation report read like a "who's who" of militant
hierarchy. Not surprisingly, he appointed Gazi Baba, a former Hizb commander,
as head of JEM's operations in the Valley. The police estimate JEM's current
strength in Kashmir at 600, though its command structure is still hazy.
"The
ISI is cashing in on his iconic importance to infuse new life into militancy,"
says a senior police official. Little wonder that four militant groups
-- Harkat-ul-Mujahid, Tehreek-e-Jehad, Tehreek-ul-Mujahideen and Al Badr
-- have merged into the JEM. Efforts are also on to bring the let and
Hizb under the fold. While a section of let in the Valley has switched
its loyalty to Azhar, the Hizb has spurned the JEM's overtures, seeing
it as an attempt to sideline the predominantly Kashmiri outfit. At a meeting
in Muzaffarbad in POK last month, Hizb commander Syed Salahuddin, then
chairman of the United Jehad Council, a conglomerate of 14 Pakistan-based
militant groups in Kashmir, vent his ire against the ISI for promoting
non-Kashmiris. He even asked the Kashmir groups to be vigilant, lest the
"reins of struggle" slipped out of their hands.
The overriding
importance given to the JEM by the ISI, according to security officials,
was one of the factors behind the Hizb's cease-fire gambit. But the ISI,
adept at make-and-break games with militants, had its own reasons. "It
will not let any militant outfit emerge too powerful," says Major-General
P.P.S. Bindra of the Northern Command. Also, the battering the foreign
mercenary-dominated groups got from security forces in the recent past
had left them in disarray. Now they are veering around to the JEM to pool
their strength. "This is to give a new look to militants as it takes
time for security forces to identify the reorganised battle order,"
says IG (Kashmir) Ashok Bhan.
As part
of the change in tack, the JEM and LET have also begun to recruit Kashmiri
youth for local sustenance. Earlier, foreign mercenaries were dependent
on the Hizb for this. Also 8 per cent of the mercenaries being pushed
into Kashmir are residents of POK, and by virtue of their ethnic affinity
with the population on this side of the LOC, have better chances of survival
than the battle-hardened Afghans.
Putting
an indigenous facade to militancy is part of ISI's strategy. Mushtaq Zargar,
another terrorist freed under the hijack deal, recently took over as chief
of a new outfit, Al-Mukaram, under the aegis of Azhar. But it's the foreign
mercenaries who control his funds and weapons. Both the let and JEM have
emerged as key sponsors of "fidayeen" (suicide) attacks mounted
by motivated and drugged foreign mercenaries.
Intelligence
reports list at least three training centres that Azhar has opened in
Pakistan to churn out "jehadis". Flush with money raised by
its parent, the Lahore-based Markaz-e-dawa-ul-Irshad, JEM is promising
attractive wages to its cadres. Each militant will get Rs 5,000 a month
and his family Rs 5 lakh in the event of his death. A better deal than
any offered by other outfits. Azhar has also promised pension to families
of jailed militants.
The JEM
has a financier in the ISI as well. When the group was launched, the ISI
-- which spends at least Rs 200 crore a year to sustain militancy in Kashmir
-- is said to have gifted it Rs 2 crore. Intelligence reports also talk
of an emerging connection between Azhar and Saudi terrorist Osama bin
Laden who is reported to have told him to raise a two-lakh-strong Islamic
force.
Of all the
organisations in Kashmir, let is the only one which retains it predominantly
foreign-mercenary character. Of its 280 members in the Valley, 10 per
cent are Kashmiris, the rest Afghan war veterans. Bolstered by fresh recruits
from Pakistan, it sees the struggle in Kashmir as a gateway to a larger
jehad against India. The let operates from the higher reaches of Pir Panjal
and Doda and shares logistics with local outfits like Hizb and Al Barq.
The Barq comprises mostly Gujjars and arranges infiltration for let cadres.
Infiltration
of militants, mostly foreigners, from various groups, has been unabated
despite the high-troop intensity and electronic sensors along the LOC.
This year, 1,100 militants have crossed over so far. "The quantum
is sufficient to keep the pot boiling," says DGP Gurbachan Jagat.
Sufficient to keep the state on red alert.
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