By M S Nazki
Barking up the wrong tree is what Pakistan’s ISI is trying to do since 1971, it has been formally headed by a serving three-star general of the Pakistan Army, who is appointed by the Prime Minister of Pakistan in consultation with the Chief of Army Staff, who recommends three officers for the position. As of 30 September 2024, the ISI is headed by Lt. Gen. Asim Malik!
-What he is doing is the idiom Barking up the wrong tree means to pursue a mistaken or misguided course of action. It comes from the hunting practice of dogs barking at the base of a tree where they believe their prey is hiding. However, the prey may have moved to another tree, leaving the dogs barking up the wrong tree!
-As far as Jammu and Kashmir goes which at the moment Malik is trying every possible means to make sure that Kashmir remains on top of a Bunsen’s Burner!
-Though terrorism has been controlled to a larger extent but yet the fact is that Pakistan has not given up!
-It appears that Funds being received by Pak as international aid is being allocated to terrorist organizations in Pakistan occupied Jammu and Kashmir also known as POJK
– It is being used for the recruitment of terrorists in PoJK and other parts of Pakistan. Recruitments are taking place in the name of :-
– Apna Rozgar Plan.
– Rescue training.
– Dastar-Khawan Pgme.
-Intelligence Training & logging on to Social Media.
-Religious gatherings and education.
-What better proof than this:
A recent example is, Bangladesh frees an ex-minister who funded POK terrorists to bleed India!
-A Bangladesh court has freed former BNP minister Abdus Salam Pintu who helped in the recruitment and training of terrorists from Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (POK). Pintu was in jail for 17 years after being convicted in the 2004 plot to assassinate Sheikh Hasina. He helped terror outfit HuJI with funds to procure arms and train recruits.
-A Bangladesh court has granted relief to another anti-India terror accused. On Tuesday, former junior minister and Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) member, Abdus Salam Pintu, who funded terrorists from Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (POK) and Bangladesh, was released from jail after 17 years.
– Abdus Salam aided the Pakistan-based terrorist outfit Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI) in carrying out terror attacks against India. He had been sentenced to death for plotting the grenade attack on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in 2004.
-Abdus Salam played a crucial role in terror attacks in India by aiding HuJI’s weapons procurement, recruitment and training programmes in camps in POK. He has been accused of helping HuJI train madrassa students in firearms and explosives, and mobilising funds and weapons for terrorists in Kashmir.
-The Pakistan-based HuJI, is a designated terrorist outfit not only in India but also in Bangladesh, Israel, New Zealand, the UK and the US.
-Abdus was acquitted by the High Court, according to the Dhaka-based Daily Star. He had been locked up since 2008.
-Abdus Salam Pintu, along with another former BNP minister, Lutfozzaman Babar, who was acquitted, were involved in the 2004 botched attempt to kill Hasina. Babar, last week, was acquitted along with five others in the 2004 Chattogram arms-haul case.
-The investigation officer in 2011 also informed the court that Abdus and Babur had trained a number of youths, primarily madrassa students, in handling firearms and bombs.
-“Most of their recruits came from Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (POK) and Bangladesh… They had also mobilised funds, arms and ammunition for insurgents in Kashmir of India,” the investigation officer was quoted as saying by the Daily Star, in 2021.
-He had stated that HuJI aimed to eliminate Hasina, because the Awami League government from 1996 to 2001 was seen as an “obstacle” to the group’s efforts in “recruiting and training youths as operatives, and acquiring firearms for militants operating in India and Afghanistan”.
-When the Hasina-led Awami League lost power in 2001, HuJI received support from BNP leaders Lutfozzaman Babar and Abdus Salam Pintu, the Dhaka court said in 2021. It was through Abdus’s brother and HuJI leader, Moulana Tajuddin, that both aided the terror outfit in their plans to bleed India.
-Abdus Salam Pintu had served as deputy minister for information, industries and education under former PM Khaleda Zia of the BNP.
-The HuJI has been instrumental in carrying out a series of terrorist attacks in India as part of the Pakistani establishment “Bleed India with a Thousand Cuts” doctrine. This involved several low-intensity attacks, such as the court complex bombings in Varanasi in 2006, the bombing of the Ajmer Sharif Dargah in 2007, and bomb blastsin Delhi in 2011.
-HuJI is known to operate in collaboration with other terrorist groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), and receive support and patronage from Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
-With the release of Abdus Salam Pintu, following the freeing of Lutfozzaman Babar, the Naya Bangladesh led by Muhammad Yunus has witnessed several Islamists with hardline anti-India stances walking free. Weeks after Sheikh Hasina was forced to flee to India, Jashimuddin Rahmani, the chief of the Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT), an al-Qaida-affiliated terrorist group, was also freed.
-This proves that International funding to the POJK terrorists is still on and it will keep going on!
-These inputs are in no way wrong because the same is happening in POJK!
Now this is a fact: Beyond response: J&K needs proactive strategies for counter-terrorism!
Terrorist violence, it appears, is/was making a comeback in Jammu & Kashmir after a lull of a few months. A series of terrorist attacks and encounters in the Jammu region in the last few weeks have led to fears that militancy, which had been in its final gasps, has come back stronger to target the security forces operating in the region.
-The sequence of events:
-It all began on 9 June 2024, when insurgents attacked a bus carrying pilgrims in Reasi, killing 10 and injuring 33. Two days later, six soldiers were wounded in twin attacks in Doda and Kathua.
-On 7 July, one army personnel was injured when terrorists attacked a security post in the Rajouri-Poonch area. Another attack followed on 8 July, when heavily armed terrorists killed five soldiers, including a Junior Commissioned Officer and injured six in the Kathua district.
-In the Doda district, four army soldiers, an officer and a J&K Police (JKP) officer were killed during an encounter. The Jaish-e-Mohammed-linked shadow groups, the Kashmir Tigers and People’s Anti-Fascist Front, have claimed responsibility for these attacks.
-These attacks south of Pir Panjal assume significance as, since 2019, the security grid has been largely successful in combating terrorist violence in the Kashmir valley.
-These attacks south of Pir Panjal assume significance as, since 2019, the security grid has been largely successful in combating terrorist violence in the Kashmir valley.
-A noticeable change in the attitude of the Kashmiri youth accompanies this reduction in terrorist violence. This was evident by the active participation of youth in the recently held Lok Sabha elections, which saw a 58 percent voter turnout in the Union Territory. Then the Assembly elections happened!
-These changed dynamics are putting pressure on Pakistan and the terrorist organisations based there to alter their geographic and tactical approaches to remain relevant.
-After August 2019, security agencies focused on the terrorist strongholds of South Kashmir, which had become the hotbed of militancy. With a robust security grid, they largely succeeded in cracking down on terrorist networks and eliminated several terrorists.
-The crackdown included explicitly targeting terror funding and individuals supporting or harbouring terrorists, including the Over Ground Workers (OGWs) and cadres of Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI). This Hizbul Mujahideen-linked religious organisation had spread its network far and wide in the Valley. According to the data provided by the security forces, between 2019 and 2021, the JKP arrested more than 900 OGWs under the Public Safety Act and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. In addition, the National Investigation Agency launched several investigations into terrorist financing cases. These uncovered a deep nexus between the Pakistan Army’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and terrorist organisations.
-Meanwhile, the pressure on terrorist organisations continued through counter-insurgency operations that targeted top militant leaders. Between 2021 and 2023, security forces eliminated as many as 443 terrorists, including 127 foreign terrorists (as shown in Figure 1).
-As a result of these actions, there was a dip in local terrorist recruitment after 2021. In 2022, only 100 local youth joined terrorist organisations. This came down to merely 25 in 2023. At present, security agencies estimate the presence of around 110 foreign and 27 local terrorists in J&K.
-These circumstances also changed the local youth’s perception of Pakistan. There was a realisation that Islamabad had deceived generations of Kashmiris by exploiting religion and engaging in illegal activities like narcotics smuggling to fund insurgency in the Valley.
-Pakistan is also exploring new mechanisms for infiltration, like porous international borders and riverine areas in the Jammu sector rather than the Line of Control (LoC) in the north. Security forces have noted that the infiltrating terrorists, gathering in groups of four to five, have used tactics of conservation and consolidation, i.e., staying quiet for some time and blending with the local population before carrying out attacks. Security forces also note the proliferation of equipment like M4 carbine assault rifles, night vision goggles along with highly encrypted telecom equipment (Chinese customised equipment that is usually used by Pak Army troops).
– In addition, terrorists are using encrypted messaging platforms and social media apps like Telegram, Tam Tam, Mastodon, Chirpwire, Enigma, etc., along with virtual private networks, which are already banned in Rajouri and Poonch districts.
-However, the region’s security grid, particularly in the Rajouri and Poonch districts, was weakened because some security forces were reassigned to the eastern Ladakh sector to deal with the Chinese aggression. Terrorist organisations exploited this opportunity to target security forces, ultimately contributing to the recent surge.
-The proactive measures:
-Restoring the security grid in the region must be the priority, especially in the terror-hit border districts of Kathua, Doda, Rajouri and Poonch. For this purpose, experienced Army and Police officials from the Kashmir Valley should be deployed in the region, with a mandate not only to redesign the anti-terror grid but also to create much-needed inter-agency synergy.
-Restoring the security grid in the region must be the priority, especially in the terror-hit border districts of Kathua, Doda, Rajouri and Poonch.
-Moreover, given the adoption of an ambush style of attack by foreign terrorists, the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and JKP’s Special Operations Group (SOG) can form joint teams to counter such attacks effectively. For example, CRPF’s COBRA Commandos, known for their jungle and guerrilla warfare experience, can be teamed up with SOG personnel, some of whom have combat experience from the peak militancy decade of 2000-2010 in the Pir Panjal and Chenab belt region. In addition, the Army should leverage its strengths to dominate the heights, increase vigilance along the LoC, and tighten border security. Improving inter-agency coordination between the Army, CRPF, Border Security Force, and JKP is crucial.
-Subsequently, the security forces must opt for additional counter-insurgency training to develop new strategies. In the last seven or eight years, most counter-insurgency operations have been successfully executed using TECHINT-based information. However, terrorists are now using encrypted apps and online activity to mislead security agencies. Therefore, agencies must reinforce HUMINT to complement TECHINT. Creating a network of informants won’t be easy as intelligence agencies worked against each other’s assets after 2019, taking most of the sources out of the system.
-Significantly, it is not just the hard measures that will help the security forces; soft measures, too, can go a long way in avoiding losing the locals’ trust. The forces can replicate some of the soft measures the Army has initiated in the Valley. This becomes even more critical from the information warfare viewpoint, something which the ISI’s propaganda machinery has amplified vis-à-vis Kashmir post-August 2019.
Pakistan’s only ambition is to keep Kashmir on the boil! But India will not allow the same to happen! This is what Asim Malik the ISI Chief should realize!
