THE TERROR CLAIMS
Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad claims credit for attacks, tries to raise profile in Valley. But is there a revival?
Apowerful explosion on the morning of January 6 killed four J&K police personnel deployed for crowd control in Sopore’s Gole Market, ahead of the call for a shutdown by Hurriyat separatists. Shortly after, the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), the Pakistanbacked terror outfit that carried out the 2001 attack on India’s Parliament, claimed responsibility for what was the first use of an IED (improvised explosive device) in the Kashmir Valley since 2015.
Coming soon after two terror strikes, including the New Year’s Eve suicide attack, where five CRPF personnel were gunned down at their heavily fortified camp in Lethpora (Pulwama), it would appear that the outfit has significantly stepped up operations in the Valley.
It also points to a worrying possibility that homegrown (Kashmiri) militants may now be joining the fidayeen squads. The Lethpora attackers included two locals—Manzoor A. Baba and Fardeen A. Khanday—the latter a 16-year-old high school dropout from Tral who joined the JeM just three months ago. The duo reportedly wanted to avenge the December 26 killing of Noor Mohammad Tantray aka Noor Trali, a 47-year-
old midget who was the JeM ‘divisional commander’ in south Kashmir.
But something is amiss. Senior security officials say there is a coordinated propaganda campaign under way to project the JeM as the new spearhead of militancy in the Valley. Munir Khan, additional DGP in charge of the Kashmir Valley, says, “The Jaish has always been around... just that it has become more visible now because almost the entire leadership of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) has been neutralised over the past few months.”
A top-ranking state intelligence officer believes there’s more to the story. “We have solid intelligence that the Sopore IED bombing wasn’t the handiwork of the JeM,” he says, pointing to an attempt to build a faux narrative that could encourage local recruitments to the JeM.
The Valley media, particularly non-English newspapers and portals, are full of reports of an imminent “JeM revival” and “more suicide strikes” in the insurgency-stricken state. JeM terrorists have carried out some of the most eyeball-grabbing attacks on Indian soil since Afzal Guru’s hanging in 2013—the Pathankot air force base attack in January 2016 and the attack on the brigade headquarters in Uri in September the same year, which killed 19 Indian army soldiers. There’s also the series of fidayeen strikes along the LoC in north Kashmir.
An old Kashmir hand, ADGP Munir Khan, who was given charge of the Valley in the summer of 2017, concedes that the JeM has managed to ramp up numbers in the Valley through successful infiltrations via Poonch as well as north Kashmir. But he dismisses the ‘revival’ theory. And the numbers support his contention: of the 49 “major encounters” documented by the South Asia Terrorism Portal in 2017, LeT headed the list with 16 strikes; the HM was responsible for another nine; while the JeM executed eight. So, as Khan says, the Jaish has always been around.
What may be more worrisome, though, is the prospect of local Kashmiri militants turning to fidayeen strikes, and the possible resurfacing of terror strikes employing IEDs. As the officer admits, it’s time to “chalk out new strategies” in the Valley.