For long Pakistan has been going overboard violating the ceasefire and targetting our security forces in order to push through the ISI-trained militants. India needs to give a befitting reply to neutralise it’s nefarious plots
Lt. Gen. (Retd) Kamal Davar
Frequent violation of ceasefire along the LOC by the Pakistan Army has become a serious matter that needs to be addressed urgently. The nation cannot afford to lose jawans due to intermitent breach of discipline by the Pakistan forces. Mostly such activities are meant to facilitate the intrusion of Pakistan-trained militants.
Not only is Pakistan continuing with its violence-ridden mischief by intensifying terrorist violence in J&K, but a more worrisome development has been the apparent rise in Islamic radicalisation of the discontent and dissent among the youth in the state, especially in the Valley.
The fluttering of Pakistani flags alongside banners of the international terrorist organization, the ISIS, portends ominous tidings for the Indian state.The time for reckoning for India has arrived sooner than expected. Terrorist incidents targeted mainly at the security forces have escalated alarmingly over the last 12 months. As part of a well-crafted strategy, Pakistan has upped the ante even along the Line of Control(LoC) by increased cross-border firings and sporadic actions by its Border Action Teams(BATs) against Indian soldiers patrolling the LoC. That Indian forces have forcefully retaliated, with telling effect, against Pakistani shenanigans does not appear to have dampened the endless Pakistani appetite for mischief by stoking fires inside the Valley with renewed emphasis now in South Kashmir. That India will now have to recast its strategy in J&K to thwart continuing Pakistani machinations with determination and alacrity brooks no discussion.
Hope is never a strategy and the Centre, must recognize the deteriorating situation in Kashmir, and step in directly.Let us not underplay the fact that, somewhere, the ISIS , now in rout in Iraq and Syria, is endeavouring to spread its evil tentacles in the region it calls Khorasan—having already reached the launch pad for this region,Afghanistan. That this Sunni Islamic outfit which exemplifies cruelty and inhumanity, in its most horrible form, is already knocking at the doors in Kashmir, with deviously subtle assistance from Pakistan’s sinister ISI will soon be public knowledge. The resurgence in terror incidents, unrest and stone-pelting in the Sunni
dominated Valley in India’s state of J& K is part of Pakistan’s fresh efforts to corner India.
In Kashmir, the number of Wahabi oriented mosques and ‘ madrassas’, fuelled by Saudi money is on the increase.This will surely spell the doom of Kashmir’s age-old Sufi spirit of tolerance and secularism in case not checked in time. The radicalization of local Kashmiris, never witnessed earlier, is obvious from the fact that some local Hizb-ul- Mujaihdeen converts have threatened to eliminate even the separatist leaders if they insist in calling the Kashmiri struggle ‘political’ and not ‘religious’.
As India endeavours, with firmness, where required, to restore law and order in Kashmiri society, it needs to conceive its overall Kashmir strategy holistically. India has to factor in its security calculus, that in the foreseeable future, Pakistan will just not depart from its highly anti-India orientation in all its politico-strategic formulations. Thus we do not have to be keep hoping against hope for sanity to ever return to our errant neighbor, but it is time now to cut-off all relations with it till it mends its ways. Let us commence with downgrading our diplomatic representation in each other’s capitals. India must withdraw the MFN status accorded to Pakistan for it has not reciprocated.
The Pakistani Deep State, comprising its Army, Inter Services Intelligence and the many terror ‘tanzeems’ it funds, trains, equips and employs for terror operations in India and Afghanistan is currently ‘on a high’. In concert with China, whose China-Pakistan- Economic Corridor (CPEC) with its US $ 62 billion investment will be, as hoped for by Pakistan an economic and geo-political game-changer, the Pak Deep State feels that it can survive its many acts of perfidy in the region. Pakistan also knows that the US, as always, will admonish it regularly, without switching off the financial tap. Thus for Pakistan it will be business as always.
In the initial stages, firm steps, as required should be taken and all miscreants, anti-national elements rounded up. Prior to that the Army must launch an Information Blitzkrieg to educate the people, especially the youth, of the atrocities being committed on their fellow Kashmiris in the Gilgit-Baltistan region and Pakistan Occupied Kashmir. The Centre must dispatch a few Muslim clerics to tour the state to educate the Kashmiris on various religious issues and try to re-kindle the Sufi spirit in them.
In the overall perspective, India has to set into motion, a constructive narrative propelled by a powerful perception management blitzkrieg which the locals can comprehend. There is much merit in dispatching to the wounded Valley some nationalistic Sunni clerics to Srinagar, other towns including remote villages to spread the good word. Kashmiris can only combat extreme Wahabi
radicalism with the revival of their age-old Sufi spirit.
The youth of the state turn up in their thousands seeking recruitment and employment in various governmental services including the Army and central police forces– which is a good indicator of their desire to join the national mainstream. Along with a genuine ‘healing touch’ for the people of J&K , India has to meet the high aspirations of Kashmiri youth. It is time for PM Narendra Modi to step in personally to address the Kashmir imbroglio.
India must prepare hard-hitting
pre-emptive strike plans on terrorist infrastructure in POK and elsewhere in Pakistan, as and when required. Thirdly, India must determinedly endeavour to constantly improve its intelligence gathering, analysis and dissemination machinery—both HUMINT and TECHINT. Pakistan has to be made to realize, both through dialogue and, failing which, by speedy and effective kinetic responses, that terrorism against India will not pay. Stern action against all indigenous separatist leaders must be taken in case they continue to indulge in anti
national or any form of secessionist
activities. India must never be seen as a soft state, either by nations inimical to us and, importantly, by its own citizens. Importantly, India has to raise the costs for Pakistan whenever it indulges in mischief. Additionally, Pakistan has to be reminded that till date, India has not exploited Pakistan’s many fault-lines and India’s strategic restraint is not India’s permanent policy !
(The writer is a former Chief of Defence Intelligence)
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