Pakistan’s role in J&K Terror Attacks

By Deepak Parvatiyar

December 8, 2014

Considerably large turnout of voters in J&K has been seen during the ongoing as well as last Assembly and Parliament elections in Jammu and Kashmir. This confirms that the Kashmiris, held hostage by means of terror for long by Pakistan-backed mercenaries and separatists as well, favour ballot over bullet for progress and development.

This is a prospect that Pakistan does not relish as the democratic process in J&K weakens its claims on Kashmir. Pakistan’s tested non-state actors make attempts to scuttle elections with terror strikes in the state with impunity. They did so this time too – already the state has seen six terror attacks by infiltrators from across the border in less than a week following the second phase of voting that saw 71 per cent turnout in the state. But each time, the alert Indian security forces have foiled their attempts.

Pakistan Desperate to Harm Electoral Process in J&K

The goods recovered from the slain infiltrators confirm their Pakistani origins. What suggests even direct involvement of the Pakistani army is that the food packets recovered from the six intruders who attacked the Indian military base in Uri last week, were those “generally used by Pakistan army”.

Intelligence inputs suggest more such attacks in the course of the next three rounds of voting, given Pakistan’s desperation to scuttle the electoral process in the state.

The Lahore-based mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks and founder of the banned terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba, Hafeez Sayeed, who has a reward on his head but roams freely in Pakistan, has reiterated Islamabad’s stand and reportedly told his supporters that the J&K elections could not be a “substitute of plebiscite”.

Even The Uri attack coincided with Sayeed’s the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (read Lashkar-e-Taiba) convention in Lahore.

Terror Strikes Cement Pakistan’s image as a Trouble Monger

Just a day before Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s scheduled election rally in Srinagar, terrorists struck twice in the Valley! In the first incident, they hurled grenade at a polling booth injuring a Central Industrial Security Force jawan, at Noorpura in Tral constituency of Pulwama district that goes to poll on December 9. The other terror attack was in Srinagar, where Modi was to address the rally. Nobody though was injured there.

On Friday December 5, four terror attacks had rocked the Valley, leaving 11 security personnel including a Lt Colonel dead along with two civilians. Six fidayeens had even targeted an Army camp in Uri then. Just 48 hours before the Uri attack, the Army had gunned down six heavily armed terrorists after a 24-hour long operation on the Line of Control in the Naugam sector.

The spurt in terror attacks in J&K during the state elections does cement Pakistan’s image as a trouble monger.

Pakistan’s Kashmir Fixation

Pakistan seems to have become a perennial prisoner of its Kashmir fixation.  In the last ten years, it had taken advantage of India being too soft on its (mis)adventures in Kashmir. It has yet to come to grips with the changed situation following a change of guard in New Delhi. The Narendra Modi-led government has thus far effectively countered Pakistan’s aggression diplomatically. Indian Army too, unlike in the past, given a befitting reply to Pakistan’s ceasefire violations under the new dispensation in New Delhi. Prime Minister Modi too has spent much time in J&K ever since he assumed charge. The terror threat from across the border has not deterred him from addressing his election rallies in the troubled state.

Yet, Pakistan PM Sharif, whose government’s very survival is under threat following a hostile Opposition, seems to be running out of ideas. He needs to realise that the more Pakistan tries to disrupt the elections in Jammu & Kashmir, the more it stands exposed before the world community as a rogue state with a failed democracy.

In less than a couple of months, it has more than once been snubbed by the international community on major world platforms – first at the United Nations General Assembly in New York where its Kashmir rant had no takers, and then at the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation summit in Kathmandu, where Afghan President Ashraf Ghani made a veiled reference to Pakistan’s patronage of “non state actors” for the terror strikes in the region.

Terror attacks alienate Pakistan even from Kashmiris

More and more Kashmiris are waking up to the realisation of the Pakistani designs. This explains why separatists like Sajjad Lone are shunning guns and preferring to contest elections in the Valley. (Lone’s wife – daughter of a separatist leader of PoK – is actively canvassing for him).

But can Pakistan mend its ways given its politicians’ fixation with the ‘K’ issue? Having fought three wars with India over Kashmir, it seems highly improbable. All Pakistani politicians, including Sharif, would keep fostering trouble in Kashmir to deflect their own failures on the domestic front.

However, much to their chagrin, the Kashmiris have seized the opportunity this elections, to return to the mainstream by further isolating Islamabad from the world community, and by showing it its place.