Challenges Ahead

For the last few days, maintaining law and order in the wake of an indefinite strike by the state government employees is our biggest challenge. The state government employees have been taking out protest marches and sometimes indulge in sporadic stone-pelting. This calls for a firm, yet restraint response from our side. But this issue is not typical to Jammu and Kashmir as government employees go on strike in any part of the country. Peculiar to J&K are two basic challenges: terrorism and law and order. In many ways, the two issues are interconnected as law and order problems in the state are often Separatist or terrorist-backed. In such situations, ordinary street demonstrations also acquire a different dimension, calling for a different approach for diffusing the situation. When a public protest or a demonstration is not spontaneous but orchestrated by the Separatists then it is only natural that they will exploit any action taken by the police to their advantage. Hence, in such situations it is imperative for us to be both firm and cautious.

Terrorist Network

During the protests provoked by the Amarnath land dispute, the police was completely involved in quelling the agitations in various parts of the state for a few months. As a result, our anti-terror operations suffered quite a bit. Compounding that was the Bomai incident (Sopore), in which two innocent men were killed in the case of mistaken identity, which put the army on the back foot. All these factors combined led to the terrorist/militant groups to regroup and strengthen themselves. Lashkar-e-Taiyyaba used that period to consolidate itself and assume leadership of other groups as well. We learnt that LeT tried to divide areas between themselves, the Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) and a few other groups like Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) for concerted operations. But this did not work out. Despite substantial poaching by the LeT among the Hizbul ranks, HM was apparently not willing to be completely subsumed by the LeT. In the Nineties, when violence levels peaked, there were almost 58 to 60 terrorist groups operating in the state. In those days, we came across terrorists of various nationalities in addition to Pakistan; for instance, Afghani, Arab, Sudanese and so on. Today, there are five to six groups and while majority are locals, there is a substantial presence of Punjabis and Pashtoons from Pakistan.