ANI
South Asia’s Leading Multimedia News Agency
Fighting Pakistan's dirty war in Kashmir
Valley amid bad politics
Updated: Jun 26, 2017 10:37 IST By: Col. Anil Bhat,
VSM (Retd)
New Delhi [India],
June 26 (ANI): The heinous abduction from a marriage
ceremony in Kulgam town and killing of Lt. Umar Fayaz followed by the brutal
massacre and mutilation of six Jammu and Kashmir policemen in Anantnag district
and the barbaric lynching of Deputy Superintendent of Police Ayub Pandith by a
mob outside Srinagar's Jama Masjid, mark an unprecedented high in the
Pakistan-sponsored and supported proxy war and radicalisation of the Kashmir
Valley.
Particularly Pandith's lynching by a
mob only reinforces the fact that the separatists have sunk to their lowest in
killing Kashmiriyat, which they claim to champion and expose them once again as
vermin for the valley.
Further, the killings of the police
personnel and Pandith in charge of Mirwaiz Omar Farooq's security detail being
killing outside the Jama Masjid, where Mirwaiz was holding forth with his
provocative discourse, both during Ramzan, only add to the utter dastardliness
of the separatists-read dangerous traitors.
Finally, on 24 June 2017, youth
addressed a large gathering condemning the killings of JK policemen and the
separatists, but it still beats anyone's imagination as to why these traitors
are still enjoying security and many other benefits at taxpayers' cost and why
they have not been imprisoned in jails. Because frequent house arrests are a
mockery as they do not prevent separatists from continuing their anti-national
operations by telephone/ their network of foot soldiers.
Compared to 14 cease fire violations in
J&K in 2016, there have been 193 violations in 2017, till 14 June. The
breakdown is 8 in January, 13 in February, 22 in March, 29 in April, 87 in May
and 34 till 14 June, when even half the year has not ended. Attacks in the
J&K hinterland by Pak army/Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) trained and
supported Pakistani and Kashmiri terrorists in 2017 have almost tripled in
comparison with earlier years.
In Pakistan, Syed Salahuddin, the head
of the Hizbul Mujahideen and United Jihad Council, in his mad-dog mode has reportedly
threatened nuclear war against India over the Kashmir issue. Speaking to
reporters in Karachi Salahuddin said there is a great chance of a nuclear war
taking place between India and Pakistan over the Kashmir issue. "Pakistan
is duty bound, morally bound, politically bound and constitutionally bound to
provide concrete, substantial support to the ongoing freedom struggle on the
territory of Kashmir.
And, if Pakistan provides this support,
there is a great chance of a nuclear war between the two powers," he
added.
He said three wars have already been
fought between the two countries over the Kashmir issue, adding that he can
predict a fourth war with certainty because Kashmiris are no longer willing to
compromise under any circumstances. "Whether the world supports them or
not; whether Pakistan stands by them or not; whether the United Nation performs
its duty or not; they have taken a pledge to fight up to the last drop of their
blood," he added.
After over 12 months of dealing with
rioting mobs of Kashmiri youth of the five' infected' districts of Kashmir
Valley-Anantnag, Baramula, Kulgam, Pulwama and Shopian-who have been attacking
the Army and security forces with not merely stones, but also petrol bombs,
acid and even in some cases firearms, what Army Chief General Bipin Rawat was
constrained to state in an interview by PTI - that it's a dirty war that is
being fought in Kashmir Valley- stands vindicated.
"This is a proxy war and proxy war
is a dirty war. It is played in a dirty way. The rules of engagements are there
when the adversary comes face-to-face and fights with you. It is a dirty war...
That is where innovation comes in. You fight a dirty war with
innovations..."People are throwing stones and even petrol bombs at us. If
my men ask me what do we do, should I say, 'just wait and die? I will come with
a nice coffin with a national flag and I will send your bodies home with
honour'. Is it what I am supposed to tell them as Chief? I have to maintain the
morale of my troops who are operating there," Gen Rawat said.
He wholeheartedly defended Major Leetul
Gogoi for using a Kashmiri stone-pelter as a 'human shield' by, an action which
has been praised / approved by many including Attorney-General Mukul Rohatgi,
who did not mince his words when he stated in media: "The recent report
about a stone pelter tied to an Army vehicle helped contain stone pelters and
saved the poll officials". Gen Rawat said that as the Army chief, it was
his duty to maintain the morale of the army personnel in Jammu and Kashmir and
by awarding Major Gogoi he did exactly that.
"As Army Chief my concern is
morale of the Army. I am far away from the battlefield. I cannot influence the
situation there. I can only tell the boys that 'I am with you'. I always tell
my people, things will go wrong, but if things have gone wrong and you did not
have malafide intent, I am there," he said.
Referring to the complexity of the
security challenges in Kashmir Valley he could not but help expressing, that if
people in any country lose fear of the army, then the country is doomed.
"Adversaries must be afraid of you
and at the same time your people must be afraid of you. We are a friendly army,
but when we are called to restore law and order, people have to be afraid of
us," he said and simultaneously asserted that maximum restraint is being
maintained while handling the situation in the Valley.
General Rawat said there was a ploy to
break the trust between various security forces, and Major Gogoi could not have
refused to provide security when polling agents had sought security assistance.
"Tomorrow elections have to be
held in Anantnag and similar things may happen. If the army does not respond to
call for assistance, then the trust between the people whom we are protecting,
police and army will break. "That is something I cannot allow to happen.
This is what the militants want. It can create a divide between the army and
other security forces," he said.
The army chief also wondered why not
much noise was made when young army officer Lt Umar Fayaz was killed by
militants when he was on leave.
Asked whether there should be a
political initiative to reach out to the Kashmiri people, the Army Chief said
it was for the government to decide, adding such initiatives were taken in the
past as well.
"Has political initiative not been
taken in the past? What was the result, you had Kargil...," he said.
On 13 June 2017 Army Chief met and
complimented Kashmiri students trained by Army's Super-40 coaching initiative
for the Engineering Entrance Examination. The results broke all previous
records when 26 boys and two girls from the state cracked the IIT-JEE Mains
Exam 2017. Nine students have successfully qualified the IIT Advanced Exam, the
results of which were declared on 11 June 17. The coaching is conducted at
Srinagar jointly by Army, Centre for Social Responsibility & Learning
(CSRL) and Petronet LNG. This was also the first batch in which five girls from
Kashmir valley were coached, out of which two qualified in the JEE Mains.
This exam and the response to many
recruitment tests by the Army and JK police, where up to 1500 applicants have
been showing up only goes to prove that there is a fair constituency of
Kashmiri youth, who do not subscribe to radicalization and rioting but who want
to get ahead in life within the Indian system.
However, the great irony is that while
the proxy war by terror and radicalization perpetrated by Pakistan is dirty,
not withdrawing the separatists' facilities, not putting them in jails allowing
them to continue their deadly activities, while some Indian political leaders,
apologists, peaceniks, pseudo-secularists, pseudo-human rights activists vilify
the Army and the security forces and keep harping on talks with the
separatists/traitors, only proves that the politics on this war is even
dirtier.
Terrorists and their supporters are
intimidating young Kashmiris wanting to join the Army, police or security
forces. A video of one of them being tonsured was widely aired. Many J&K
police personnels' homes have been raided by terrorists/their supporters to
threaten them for discharging their duties.
Separatists have also issued diktats
against sending children to Army's goodwill schools, which could not be burnt
and where students have been faring well, accusing these schools of compromising
'Kashmiriyat', which actually is being erased and replaced with Wahabism by
Pakistan supported Kashmiri terrorists of Hizbul Mujahideen and the
separatists, who are not even sparing their own fellow Kashmiris.
There is no dearth of evidence of the
separatists' treacherous activities. One of them, Naeem Khan has had the
temerity to boast of forgetting how many Kashmiri Pandits he killed after
killing 25. Dangerous terrorists have been able to escape owing to orchestrated
rioting by youth, including girls.
The Pakistan Army has reportedly raised
a battalion or two worth of battle action teams to further raise the ante
across the Line of Control and International Boundary in Jammu and Kashmir.
With the PDP-BJP government not being
able to/not wanting to take urgently needed steps, it is now high time that New
Delhi jettisons the politics of appeasing traitors/anti-nationals and instead
meaningfully demolishes the entire separatists network. Because no matter how
many cross-border strikes or bombardments are undertaken, they will only affect
Pak army and not the process of radicalizing/poisoning the minds of the
Valley's Kashmiris. The districts contaminated/commandeered by Pakistani and
Kashmiri (Hizbul Mujahideen) terrorists must be cleansed effectively and
equally important, FIRs against Army and constabularies must stop.
And if the only way of decontaminating
Kashmir Valley is by promulgating Central rule, then no more time should be
lost in doing so.
