Clashes among J&K ultras increase

NEW DELHI, Nov 14: Militancy in Jammu and Kashmir has been transformed largely into a series of foreign militant-dominated inter-group clash...

NEW DELHI, Nov 14: Militancy in Jammu and Kashmir has been transformed largely into a series of foreign militant-dominated inter-group clashes. With the foreign militants receiving a major portion of money, material and manpower from Pakistan, that country’s distrust of the Kashmiri is now virtually complete. This has led to almost 60 clashes in 1998.

The frequency with which the various militant groups have been clashing is a subject of considerable interest within various governmental agencies which have a stake in Jammu and Kashmir. “While it is too early to say if it’s a trend, we are definitely looking at the situation with attention, since it fits into the classical patterns in the evolution of insurgencies,” said a North Block official. In 1998 there have been about 60 recorded clashes. While most have occurred in the Valley, there have been some serious ones south of Pir Panjal, in both the Rajouri-Poonch and Doda sectors. Most of the inter-group clashes have occurred in the months of July, Augustand September, almost 40 of the total this year so far.

Pakistan has this year changed the orientation of the militancy into one that is largely foreign-led, organised and managed. As a result of this, the Kashmiri groups, primarily revolving around the organisational strength of Hizbul Mujahideen (HM), are feeling the pinch in terms of finances and material support.

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The source of dispute between the Kashmiri and the non-Kashmiri militant revolves around money. According to government sources, the foreign militant gets three times the salary that a Kashmiri gets, and above all that “is the insurance that he is covered with. Should the militant die in an encounter, his family in Pakistan will receive up to Rs 2 lakhs from the ISI operators,” said a source. There is no such money for the Kashmiri militant, and if there is insurance money it is between 10000-20000 rupees. “And that too if the payment is honest, for there have been many instances of couriers siphoning money earmarked for families of deadmilitants,” said the sources.

Militancy in the Kashmir Valley as well as the adjoining areas of the Pir Panjal range is now led principally by foreign-dominated groups like the Lashkar-e-Toiba and the renamed version of the Harkat-ul-Ansar, the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen. The HM is a Kashmiri group with strong links with the Jamaat-e-Islami. It has its headquarters in Muzaffarabad in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK). Its supreme commander, Syed Sallahudeen, lives in POK. The HM recruits mostly from the Kashmir Valley.

The Lashkar and the Harkat are also Pakistan-based groups, but not in the occupied parts of Kashmir. The Lashkar is the militant wing of the Markaz Dawa wal Irshad, based in Muridke near Lahore, according to published Pakistani accounts. “The Markaz is headed by Maulana Mohammed Saeed, a professor at Lahore’s University of Engineering and Technology,” says the September issue of the Pakistani monthly, The Herald.

The Harkat, on the other hand, is closely linked to Maulana Samiul Haq’sJamiat-ul-Ulema-Islam in Pakistan. It is also associated with the Taliban and the camps in Afghanistan run by the fugitive Saudi Arabian, Osama bin Laden.

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According to The Herald, “In this country (Pakistan), meanwhile, the establishment is believed to view this group favourably because Harkat militants have proven themselves to be fierce fighters in Kashmir.” Both Lashkar and Harkat recruit non-Kashmiris, mostly Pakistanis, but with a smattering of other nationalities.

Although the HM is supposed to provide guides to Lashkar and Harkat teams functioning in their area of responsibility, there are times when they have deliberately involved them in encounters. This, said the sources, is on account of precise orders from Pakistan that should any foreign militants enter an area, leadership for all militant operations will rest upon them. “This has really got the goat of the Kashmiris, for without leadership and control, there is no more money to be made from extortions and collections,” said thesources.