Pak’s
Kartarpur tricks & reverses; fresh terror in Punjab & Assam
Published : Dec 20, 2018, 6:24 am IST
Updated : Dec 20, 2018, 6:24 am IST
Reverses
in the Valley have further driven the ISI to renew its operations in Punjab and
the Northeast.
Darbar Sahib
Gurdwara commemorating Guru Nanak at Kartarpur, Pakistan
The Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi allegedly
“losing” 23 passports of Indian nationals wanting to go on a pilgrimage to
Kartarpur, out of 3,800 visas issued recently is disturbing but not surprising.
Indian agencies probing the matter asked the Ministry of External Affairs to
begin the process of cancelling these passports immediately as they are
apprehensive about Pakistan misusing these passports against India in the
future. It should be recalled that the Pakistan High Commission has earlier
been blamed for not just espionage but also giving visas to persons from Jammu
and Kashmir to go to Pakistan for terror training.
In a series of controversies related to the Kartarpur
Corridor, one came on December 3 from Pakistan’s President Arif-ur-Rehman Alvi,
who, a few days after Pakistan foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi’s —
“Imran’s googly stumped India” — remark related to the Kartarpur Corridor,
called this move a “great chaal”. He said, “This is a very good strategic move.
If you know how to play chess, nowadays people don’t play it, but if you know
the game then there are chaals (strategies). The player analyses the opponent’s
next move and then decides his next chaal. Kartarpur was a great chaal.”
On December 9, 2018, the Pakistan High Commission
reportedly stated that it has issued visas to 139 Indian pilgrims to visit
Katas Raj Dham, the famous Shiva temple in Pakistan’s Punjab province. Under
the framework of a 1974 bilateral protocol on visits to religious shrines,
every year Sikh and Hindu pilgrims from India visit Pakistan and Pakistani
pilgrims visit India. In 2017, simmering tensions between India and Pakistan,
following its kangaroo court death sentence on commander Kulbhushan Jadhav
(retd) in Pakistan, intermittent firing by Pakistani forces across the
international boundary and the Line of Control and the brutal mutilation of two
Indian Army personnel by a team of Pak Army and terrorists, Pakistan’s Ministry
of Religious Affairs received fewer applications for two annual Urs held in
India — that of Hafiz Abdullah Shah from December 21 to 28 in Agra and of
Hazrat Khawaja Allauddin from November 30 to December 7 in Kalyar Sharif,
Rourkee.
Pakistan’s 24-year overdue offer of the Kartarpur
Corridor, closely following a series of events, spread not only over the
Kashmir Valley, but Punjab and the Northeast, yet again expose this rogue
state’s duplicity. While India decided to build a corridor on the Indian side
till the Indo-Pak international boundary to join Pakistan’s corridor leading to
Kartarpur Sahib Gurdwara, in deference to the faith and hopes of millions of
its Sikhs and other citizens following Sikhism, it firmly turned down
Pakistan’s yet another overture for “peace talks”.
First of all, the corridor offer was timed with the
completion of 10 years of the heinous November 26, 2008 terrorist attack on
Mumbai by the Lashkar e Taiyyaba (LeT), whose leaders were proved to have
planned, organised and directed it with active support by Inter Services
Intelligence (ISI) and who, instead of being proceeded against legally, have
not only been protected but even elevated by the Pakistan government to allow
them to contest elections. The latest madness is Minister of State for Interior
Shehryar Afridi declaring “As long as we (the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf) are in
the government, all those including Hafiz Saeed ‘who are raising a voice for
Pakistan and righteousness’, we are with them.” Earlier irresponsible
statements like the ones mentioned by Pakistan’s President and foreign minister
only strengthened India’s resolve to spurn Pakistan’s call for talks.
The compulsions behind Pakistan’s offers are its terror
proxies being hit very hard in J&K, denial by the US to continue its
monetary dole and its global image being at the lowest ever. By making much of
its purported desire for the corridor and peace talks, even while actively
continuing its anti-India terrorist operations, the Pakistani leadership thinks
it will fool the world again and get brownie points.
The elimination of over 230 terrorists in the Kashmir
Valley till November 2018, including nine out of twelve “commanders” of
terrorist groups, leaving only three commanders and 250 terrorists still at
large has caused enough frustration to the organisers/directors of terrorist
operations in Pakistan and their minions in the Kashmir Valley, the
separatists/traitors, S.A.S. Geelani & Co.
November 2018 has been the bloodiest month with over 40
terrorists killed. Some of the top terrorist “commanders” eliminated by the
Army in Budgam, were young, highly educated but deadly after their
indoctrination/radicalisation at the hands of ISI and Kashmiri separatists. One
of them, of the LeT, was Naveed Jatt, who had murdered senior and highly regarded
journalist Shujhat Bukhari and many other innocent civilians who were soft
targets. Six more were Dr Manan Wani, Altaf Kachroo, Umar Ganai, Waseem Wagay,
Adil Lone and Basit Mir.
Three commanders still surviving are the Hizbul
Mujahideen’s (HM) operational commander Riyaz Naikoo, Al-Badr commander
Zeenat-ul Islam who was earlier with HM, Lateef Tiger who was an associate of
Burhan Wani and Zakir Musa, the chief of Ansar-ul-Gazwat-ul-Hind. Reportedly,
HM has appointed new district commanders for Shopian, Anantnag and Pulwama.
Senior police officers cited in media stated, “In the past two months, there
has been no recruitment, but before that, youth were joining militancy…
militants in large groups may have managed to sneak in, as we have tough
terrain, deep ravines and woods along the Line of Control in Kashmir… No doubt
that the militancy in Kashmir has received a major dent this year. This is for
the first time since 2007, that such a huge number of militants were killed in
a year… Fact remains that unless infiltration stops from across the LoC,
militancy can’t be wiped out from Kashmir’s soil… When forces try to clean
Kashmir of militancy, militants, Pakistan pushes in large groups to keep the
pot boiling. “According to a source in the media, since March 2017, 500
terrorists, including 25 top commanders were killed in various encounters.
Hence comes the Pak Army’s attempt to on the one hand, try
for peace talks, and on the other, vent their frustration, target Kashmiris
serving in the Indian Army and the J&K Police. The latest of many Kashmiri
victims of the terrorists’ and ISI’s frustration, was lance naik Nazir Ahmed
Wani, twice awarded the Sena Medal for outstanding bravery. Born in Gund
Ashmuji, Kulgam, lance naik Wani, was an erstwhile terrorist, who, realising
the futility of terrorism, shunned it and began assisting the Army in
anti-terrorist operations in the Valley. His indomitable courage and invaluable
knowledge of the countryside and terrorist outfits, contributed to many
successes. In January 2004, based on the recommendations of the Army formation
commander, he was enrolled into the Jammu and Kashmir light infantry’s 162
Territorial Army battalion and was serving in the Rashtriya Rifles. Survived by
his wife and two sons, his funeral was attended by over 500 local people.
Reverses in the Valley have further driven the ISI to
renew its operations in Punjab and the Northeast. While much has been reported
on the recent and earlier Pakistani terrorist attacks in Punjab, in the
Northeast, the ISI’s old tool, the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) has
got revitalised by it. ULFA (I) under Paresh Barua has been active recently
with its signature kidnappings and killings. In October 2018, at least three
senior tea gardens staffers were abducted by ULFA from Assam’s Charaideo and
Tinsukia districts in Assam and Namsai district of Arunachal Pradesh. In early
November 2018, five persons were shot dead by suspected ULFA(I) militants in
Tinsukia district. Barua, in a recent interview to a weekly stated that he was
getting “international” assistance and then mentioned that Pakistan has good
“international connections”. ISI’s connections with ULFA go back to the early
1990s, when ULFA arranged for ISI to enter India’s Northeast and establish
contacts with Naga and Meitei insurgent-turned terrorist groups. Earlier, on
September 13, Mohammad Kamruj Zaman, was arrested from Hojai, Assam, by the
Uttar Pradesh police. From September 14 onwards, Saidul Alom and seven more —
all but one from Hojai — were arrested by the Assam police for being part of a
group that is trying to set up a base of the Hizbul Mujahideen in Assam.
The writer, a retired Army officer,
is a defence and security analyst based in New Delhi
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