Page 29 - 31DEC2018E

JAMMU & KASHMIR

November bloodiest growing and expanding”. the struggle, but we will never surren- Lesson from history
Army Chief General Bipin Rawat
However, this linear outlook runs up
also referred to this strategy during his
der,” Naikoo said. For security agencies,
however, the spurt in militant killings
recent interaction with a group of re-
against the history of the past many
for militancy in J&K porters in New Delhi on the sidelines reflects the growing success of secu- years. A drastic reduction in the num-
ber of militants has hardly lessened the
of an event. He said there were plans to
rity forces in tracking down militants, a
eliminate the top leadership of the mili-
a constant replenishment has kept it
result of the recent troop concentration
tants and that the security forces were turn of events that is seen as the direct challenge of militancy. On the contrary,
The killing of 39 militants in the Valley in the second last killing them “one by one”. in South Kashmir and elsewhere, and alive and kicking.
In November alone, nine top com-
And that too, when the Valley had no
improvement in human and technical
month of 2018 is unlikely to change anything on the ground. manders were killed including Naveed intelligence gathering. By September, the more than hundred militants (2012-13)
RIYAZ WANI delves into the reasons Jatt, the Lashkar commander who had Security experts believe that at and South Kashmir which now boasts
fled from jail last year. All efforts of the the current rate of killings the next estimated number of around 110 militants had just a dozen
security forces are now geared to track few months will see a substantial de- of active militants in of them.
ovember witnessed the anonymity associated with a militant’s down the four most prominent com- crease in the militant number which in Going forward there is little hope
killing of 39 militants in life by appearing on social media with manders — Hizbul Mujahideen’s op- turn will make a redeeming difference the Valley had shot that this state of affairs will change for
the Valley, the highest his face uncovered. This glamorized the erational commander, Riyaz Naikoo, to the security situation in the state. up to 300, despite the better. As the BJP may have learnt to
such number in a month militancy and evacuated it of its inher- Al Badr commander, Zeenat-ul Islam, “We hope to maintain the pressure its detriment, the militancy in Kashmir
N in many years. This has ent dangers and messiness. In fact, a so- Lateef Tiger and Zakir Musa, the chief and reduce the presence of militants the killings of the is so deeply rooted in the public senti-
already taken the toll of the militants cial media picture of Wani surrounded of Ansar-ul-Gazwat-ul-Hind. by a sizable number,” said a police ment and structurally so entrenched
killed this year to 233 , already 15 more by eleven of his defiant gun-wielding But if the recent interview of Naikoo officer. “This should ease up the cur- 130 militants in that it cannot be completely dislodged
than the number killed last year. And colleagues in 2015 was instrumental to Al Jazeera is anything to go by, the rent fragile situation and hopefully put the preceding even by an all-out military operation.
with the number of the active militants in capturing the imagination of new militants remain unfazed. “We want the Valley on the road to peace sooner Local recruitment and infiltration
early this year at around 250, the mili- Kashmiri generation and draw many to let them know that we might die in than later”. nine months ensure that the depleted number is eas-
tancy in the state should by now have of them towards militancy. All the ily recompensed. Or in case of deple-
been on its last legs. Far from it. By Sep- militants in the picture other than the tion in numbers of the one component,
tember, the estimated number of active one who surrendered have since been another fills in the vacuum: that is, if
militants in the Valley had shot up to killed in encounters. local recruitment is down, infiltration
300, despite the killings of the 130 mili- Three years on, the picture’s power- compensates for it and the vice versa.
tants in the preceding nine months. ful appeal remains undiminished. It has This was the case through 2004
A hundred more militants have now taken on a symbolic dimension as to 2013 when local recruitment had
since been killed but the militancy in the defining image of Kashmir’s new reduced to a trickle and the foreign
the Valley shows little signs of falling age militancy. Militancy ever since has militants stepped in to keep the jihad
apart. On the contrary, the continuing only grown from strength to strength. alive. Incidentally also, this steady
replenishment through local recruit- Rising number of killings have led to decline in jihad had accompanied the
ment and the infiltration has turned corresponding replenishment. The then ongoing peace process between
militancy into a perpetual reality. Not takeaway from this reality is that the India and Pakistan which according
that the militancy hasn’t been reigned violence will go on as it has over the to the leaders helming it was close to a
in occasionally but that has been due past three decades and may go on in the breakthrough on Kashmir in line with
largely to the factors other than an near future too. the then Pakistan president Pervez
exclusively militaristic approach. The Musharraf’s four-point formula.
latter, on the contrary, has invariably Security perspective If anything, this long history shows
been counterproductive as the deterio- Though aware of the resilience of the the resilience of the militancy in the
ration in the situation over the past four militancy, senior security officials state. It can count on a steady stream
and a half years of the BJP-led govern- reason there is no option but to con- of local and foreign recruits to keep
ment has proved yet again. tinue their counter-insurgency cam- going despite the killings. What is more,
According to a security estimate, paign. “There are structural factors that a little over hundred militants are
from a little over 15 militants in 2014, sustain the militancy in the state. sufficient to keep the pot simmer -
some of them foreigners, South Kash- But our job is to keep the number of ing in Kashmir. “This is the reality of
mir saw more than 100 local youth join militants in check and also try and wipe Kashmir,” says Naseer Ahmad, the
the militancy following the advent of out the gun in the society,” said a senior author of Kashmir Pending. “And this
the Hizbul Mujahideen commander police officer. “Our efforts have helped can only be addressed if the long-
Burhan Wani on the scene. One impor- reign in the militancy and kept it from standing political issues underpinning
tant factor in this transformation was the militancy are addressed”.
Wani’s radically unorthodox approach • Curbing rebellion In November alone, nine
to militancy whereby he jettisoned the top militant commanders were killed in J&K LETTERS@TEHELKA.COM

TEHELKA / 31 DECEMBER 2018 28 WWW.TEHELKA.COM TEHELKA / 31 DECEMBER 2018 29 WWW.TEHELKA.COM

28-29 Killings Riyaz Wani.indd 2 12/14/2018 9:24:02 PM 28-29 Killings Riyaz Wani.indd 3 12/14/2018 9:24:10 PM