Global Watch | How Pakistan deep state is trying to revive terrorism in Jammu & Kashmir

The recent killing of terrorist Muneser Hussain by security forces in Jammu and Kashmir betrays desperate attempts by Pakistan to revive terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir. Two organisations — Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) — are on the forefront of these anti-India activities planned by Pakistan’s deep state.

Hussain was a veteran and he was sent to Jammu and Kashmir to get some more cadres for the HM which along with many other terrorist organisations has been reeling under a crackdown by the Indian security establishment.

The killed terrorist Hussain was a resident of Bagyladra Poonch. He was the Division Commander of Hizbul Mujahideen(HM). He was sent with the agenda of reviving HM in Rajouri Poonch / South of Pir-Panjal (SPPR) and carrying out terror attacks in this region.

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Hussain’s entry into Jammu and Kashmir should not be seen as an isolated incident. This is part of a larger plan to revive terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir again through restructuring of HM to bring it back from hibernation.

Restructuring of HM

A crucial meeting of HM was held at Khanna in Islamabad on July 20 this year. Those who were present at this meeting included representatives of All Party Hurriyat Conference(APHC) Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jamat-Ul- Mujahideen among others.

There are indications that Syed Salahuddin, chairman of the Pakistan-based United Jehad Council and the current HM chief has been sidelined and his deputy and rival, Mohammad Amir Khan, has been directed by the Pakistani deep state to revive HM.

Action Plan to revive terrorism in Kashmir

The issues which were discussed at the meeting clearly indicate that Pakistan is in no mood to check terrorism. Rather its deep state is making every possible effort to disturb peace and rapid development in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir that has become the hallmark of this UT post abrogation of Article 370 on August 5, 2019.

The top terror commanders and radical Islamists discussed a detailed action plan in this meeting. This action plan focuses on reviving agitational politics and separatist activities in Kashmir Valley and Poonch district. The Hurriyat Conference is expected to play a major role in this.

A recruitment drive in South and Central Kashmir to provide fresh cadres for the fledgling terrorist outfits was also discussed. One of the key reasons for focusing on South Kashmir is that in the delimitation exercise joining Anantnag with Poonch-Rajouri districts to form a parliament constituency would help in deradicalisation and check terror activities. This has not gone down well with Pak deep state. Hence attempts are being made to specifically revive terrorism in South Kashmir.

It was also planned in this meeting that to embarrass the Indian government non-locals, minorities, and workers of nationalist organisations would be targeted by the terrorists.

Revival of Lashkar-e-Taiba

Prior to the HM’s restructuring, attempts have been made to revive another anti-India terrorist organisation LeT. After the Modi government came to power, its relentless campaign against Pakistan-exported terrorism had resulted in shutting down of unofficial centres of LeT in Jeddah, Makkah and Madinah. The establishment in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia(KSA) had played an important role in this regard. It had cracked down on LeT’s parent organisation Jamat-ud-Dawah’s fund-raising campaign that the latter carried out with the help of Wahabi clerics in Saudi territory. In 2015 LeT’s chief organiser Rana Iftikhar had to leave Jeddah in a hurry after he learnt that the Saudi police was about to arrest him.

For nearly seven years the LeT, and the HM were unwelcome in Saudi. That had severely affected the fund collection efforts of these main terrorist groups of Pakistan.

Due to the Saudi crackdown, Kashmiri leaders affiliated with the Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI)and based in Pakistan rarely visited Saudi Arabia over the last few years.In fact, JeI leaders in Pak like Maulana Nowsheri and other hard liners who had made Saudi their second home because of being fluent in Arabic, couldn’t travel to Saudi for fund raising for quite sometime . Similarly, LeT leaders like Amir Hamza and Zaffar (main fund raisers for the JuD) were unable to go to Saudi since 2015.

However, this situation seemed to have changed as after a long gap, a top operative of LeT visited Saudi Arabia in October 2022. The LeT terrorist who visited there was Muzamil Butt, son of LeT Commander Zaki Ur Rehman Lakhvi. This visit could be an indication of change in the ground level situation in Saudi Arabia in favour of the LeT. This is an alarming signal for India also as LeT is known to have carried out several terrorist attacks in India.

Conclusion

Even as outgoing Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was pleading for India-Pakistan talks a few days ago, the Pakistani deep state was making a desperate attempt to revive terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir. This doublespeak and the Pakistan deep state’s anti-India activities indicate that Islamabad hasn’t learnt from its past mistakes. Also, the international community has to realise that Pakistan’s fundamental character is flawed and its deep state which actually runs the country continues to promote terrorism and terrorist groups. There should be strict international sanctions on Pakistan and it shouldn’t be granted any financial support by international financial institutions. The money that Pakistan receives from these institutions in the garb of managing the economic crisis is being spent on strengthening terrorism networks. The world can ignore this at its own peril.

The writer is an author and columnist and has written several books. He tweets @ArunAnandLive. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views.