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| Pak needed a cause in peaceful J&K, Amarnath gave it one | | | Anil Bhat
FORMER INDIAN Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's last ditch attempt at peace with Pakistan in 2003 succeeded to the extent that guns fell silent on both sides of the Line of Control (LoC) and at the international boundary (IB) for four years since 2004, while the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) sought new targets all over India for spreading terror. Apart from United States' pressure, following exposure of Pakistan Army-bred terror gone global, fencing of the LoC and upgraded surveillance proved to be most frustrating for jihadis of various Pakistani tanzeems.
To add to the ISI-jihadi combo's woes, normalcy began returning to the Valley. And as a result, tourism began pumping life back into crumbling hotels and capsized houseboats. The bus to Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), uniting Kashmiri families separated for decades, and proving that "India-held" Jammu and Kashmir had, indeed, developed well beyond comparison, came as a further blow to this combo, which had now developed into a larger one with Taliban and Al Qaeda driven out, at least partially, from Afghanistan.
Further problems came with General Pervez Musharraf, in his earlier avatar as Pakistan's fourth tin-pot Army Chief-cum-dictator, needing to continue hunting with the hounds. And by March 2008, what became the proverbial last straw was that despite the murder of Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan People's Party and Nawaz Sharif's Muslim League — bitter rivals throughout the 1990s — agreed to form a coalition, succeeded in winning over practically all politicians and the control of Pakistan's provinces with a solid two-thirds majority in Parliament.
On April 17, 2008, the Guardian reported that the US, as part of a joint counter-terrorism strategy agreed with the new civilian government in Islamabad, has promised to curb air strikes against suspected militants in Pakistan, and "redefine" the bilateral relationship by supporting the government with an aid package potentially worth more than $7 billion (£3.55 bn), triple the amount of American non-military aid to Pakistan. According to US officials, Pakistan would also be given a "democracy dividend" of up to $1 billion, a reward for holding peaceful elections and forming a coalition government. The aid package, put together by Democrat Senator Joseph Biden (also the Democratic Party's vice-presidential nominee, marked a decisive break in US policy on Pakistan, which for the past nine years, had focused on President Musharraf and the Pakistani military as Washington's primary partners in the "war on terror".
The Guardian quoted a US administration official saying: "Each day Musharraf's influence becomes less and less. Civilians are in control. People aren't meeting with Musharraf any more... we are very pleased with the new civilian government." And stated that Pakistani officials said much of the new counter-terrorism aid will be spent on civilian law enforcement institutions such as the interior ministry, the intelligence bureau and the federal investigation agency, rather than being channeled almost exclusively through the Army and the military-run ISI.
Pakistani Army, desperate to re-establish its original cause for existence, switched back to old tactics of firing to induct terrorists across the LoC and IB in J&K. The first violation in April 2008 became two in May, seven in June, 10 in July and 10 in August, leading to the Jammu hostage situation of August 27. Two earlier serious ones were in July 30, in which one Indian soldier and four Pakistanis were killed, and on August 22 in which Colonel J. Thomas, two soldiers and two terrorists, trying to cross the LoC, were killed.
It will be worthwhile to juxtapose events in J&K to those in Pakistan during the same time frame. Also suffering from severe indignation on this side of the LoC was Syed Ali Shah Geelani, the financer and organiser of Pakistan-sponsored terrorism in J&K. Former Jammu and Kashmir governor, Lt. Gen. S.K. Sinha had proved to be an irritant not only to him but also to Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and his daughter Mehbooba Mufti. Governor Sinha's first sin, in their eyes, was to make a bid for the Amarnath yatra to be extended to two months instead of one.
Addressing the first Sam Manekshaw Memorial Lecture, organised by the Conclave of Defence Services Veterans, recently, Lt. Gen. Sinha said: "...I established a Centre for Kashmir Studies in Kashmir University for research and study of Kashmiri philosophy, history, literature, art and so on. We held a highly successful international seminar on Kashmiriyat in which scholars from Pakistan and Central Asian republics participated on May 25, 2008… The following day we had the world-famous Janoon, a Sufi-pop music band, perform in Srinagar. The United Jihad Council had asked Pakistan government not to send this band to Kashmir, but their request had been ignored. The terrorists held out death threats and we arranged special security. The fundamentalists called for a boycott of the band function. Yet, some 10,000 people assembled near Dal Lake and were enthralled by the music… Pakistani Dawn, in its editorial on May 28 wrote that music knew no boundaries. Kashmiri people expressed their anger against religious militants and their violence… separatists and fundamentalists were too rattled and this time, instead of issuing a fatwa, chose an innocuous issue to arouse communal passions… the government order regarding diversion of the 100-acre plot of land at Baltal to the Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board. The shrine board had asked for this land for putting up temporary prefabricated accommodation for Amarnath pilgrims in 2005. It took the government three years to take a decision on this request. The two ministers who processed this case and recommended it to the Cabinet were from PDP…" The rest is history being made!
Anil Bhat, a retired Army officer, is a defence and security analyst based in New Delhi. |
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