ELECTION 99
US EDITION
COLUMNISTS
DIARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTIONS
ARCHIVES

Search Rediff

Militants change tack in Kashmir

Josy Joseph in New Delhi

Militancy in Kashmir has undergone perceptible changes ever since General Pervez Musharraf took over Pakistan, military sources say, citing analyses of recent attacks in the Valley.

The involvement of the Inter-Service Intelligence in the hijacking of an Indian Airlines plane is only "a mere extension of the present Pakistani agenda for Jammu and Kashmir," and will lead to heightened attacks in the coming days, they warn.

According to the sources, terrorism has "undergone a sea change,'' with the militants now focusing their attention on military camps, paramilitary establishments and government centres. "The good thing is that the civilians are no more their targets, but that is how a shrewd Musharraf will operate," the sources point out.

In the last few months, the number of civilians killed has gone down drastically, "while there is a staggering increase in the number of defence personnel killed," the sources revealed.

General Musharraf headed the India division of the ISI for over a year when he was a major general, and during that period he built an extensive network among the top echelons of the militant groups. "This has made it easy for him to make this shift, and it is a clever one," a senior Border Security Force official said.

Since the October 12 military coup in Pakistan, there have been several high-profile attacks on defence establishments, including the November 3 attack on the Badami Bagh Cantonment in which Army Public Relations Officer Major Purushottam and others were killed. "Attacks on military establishments would give them instant publicity, and they would be basically of a high-profile nature," points out a senior Army officer.

The militants have also attacked both the state secretariat and the Special Operations Group headquarters in Srinagar recently.

By not attacking the civilians, the Pak-backed militants are able "not to alienate the civilian population any further. To them we are almost as much foreign as the militants are," admits an officer. He said the attacks on the Srinagar secretariat, the Badami Bagh incident and attacks on BSF centres in Baripada and other places have "failed to evoke any response among the civilians. That is the best way to carry out their agenda," he added.

In fact, in the last couple of days, the state has witnessed at least two attacks on defence establishments. On the evening of January 1, foreign militants targeted an army post in Kalakote, Rajouri killing one jawan and inflicting bullet wounds on another. The armymen were on guard duty when the militants struck.

The Army has also noticed an increase in militant activity in the Jammu region. "The region earlier used to be relatively free of militant activities. But now they have managed to sneak in Hundreds (of militants). The entire state is now slowly facing the same frequency of attacks," the official said.

Military Intelligence, which has collected the most reliable information on the hidden hand of the ISI in subversive operations in India, believes that the hijacking on December 24 "falls in line with the Pakistani agenda". A senior Army officer said the hijack has managed to give a great boost to the militants. "Militants are now celebrating the bowing down of our government to them. They will step up attacks," an officer said while pointing out that initial inputs from the Valley show that various factions have "been congratulating each other on the release of militants, but there is no definite information about their further plans".

Through the hijack crisis "Musharraf has got what he wanted, namely to bring international attention on Kashmir. After Kargil, this was yet another step. And look at the United States' reaction," he said. The official pointed out that despite Indian claims that Pakistan's hands were evident in the hijack, "not many countries have bought our arguments."

Tell us what you think of this report