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| Insurgency in J&K has ended, claims Sahai | | Complete terrorist movement is on | |
BL KAK
NEW DELHI, FEB 8
Is insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir over? Reported answer from SM Sahai, Inspector-General of Police (IGP) of the Kashmir Valley, runs thus: "We have graduated from an insurgency to a terrorist movement". What you see today is a complete terrorist movement".
In a media interview, SM Sahai has been quoted as saying that "local lumpen elements with no love for any ideology" have taken to the violent movement in a big way, lured by money. At the same time, there are other police officials who say that foreign militants, mainly Pakistanis, still operate in north Kashmir while the Hizbul Mujahideen is the dominant force in south Kashmir.
Sahai said that while his troops "are fighting now a criminal element of the militants, to whom the hardcore element has outsourced its violent activity", this has made the police job much more difficult since many of those involved in grenade attacks in recent times had no previous links with organized militancy and so did not figure in police files. Reiterating that insurgency in J&K has ended and all that now remains is an "out and out terrorist movement", Sahai, while admitting that here was a time when the Kashmiri militants did have "mass sympathy", asserted in reply to a question: "Ten years ago the militants enjoyed a lot of public support. Not so any more".
This phenomenon was, to quote Sahai, "true today even for the rural areas" of the Muslim-dominated Valley of Kashmir. Sahai was also quoted as saying: "Earlier in villages the militants were seen much as a hero. Now things have changed a lot. He (the militant) is not confident any more (of public support and sanctuary). So now we are looking at an end game. Till now all our strategies were open ended".
Sahai's yet another finding: While recruitment into militant ranks has dropped drastically and trhere is hardly any movement of militants to Pakistan for training, infiltration into Jammu and Kashmir from across the border continues. How many armed militants still exist in Jammu and Kashmir? Fielding this question, Sahai was reported to have said: "To be honest, nobody has the figure. Small numbers are operating from fringe areas, technically difficult to engage. Through overground elements, they are recruiting lumpen elements".
Police admit a dramatic surge in grenade attacks last year, calling 2006 "the year of grenades". Unemployed youths from the rural areas were involved in most of them. They were given money and grenades to lob at civilians or security forces. In many cases, they caused deaths and panic, including of tourists, angering a population heavily dependent on the tourist industry.
Sahai explained: "This criminalization is going to alienate them (separatists) further, provided we ensure that fresh infiltration (from Pakistan) does not take place". Jammu and Kashmir recorded a total number of 1,081 deaths related to the separatist campaign in 2004, the number falling to 997 in 2005 and 712 in 2006. Twenty-nine were killed in January this year. The militant/terrorist fatalities were 441 in 2004, climbing to 562 in 2005 and then falling to 365 (or one a day) in 2006. Fifteen militants were killed in January this year.
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