The slide back into terrorism

THE CAR BOMB blast in Srinagar on Thursday, wherein over 10 persons including a photo journalist were killed and twice that number injured, proclaims loud and clear that it is back to square one on the insurgency front in Jammu and Kashmir, what with the Hizbul Mujahideen also back in subversive business after a two-week ceasefire and a brief, even if palpably tentative, engagement with the Government of India in a `peace' process. The savage attack mounted by the Pakistan-backed militant elements has, not surprisingly, invited vehement condemnation from all sections of public opinion who have high stakes in seeing the end of turbulence in the Valley and the resolution, ultimately, of the vexed Kashmir problem in the overall geopolitical context. Interestingly, both the Hizb and the Lashkar-e-Taiba (which is suspected to have had a hand in the anti-peace initiative massacres earlier this month) have claimed ``responsibility'' for the horrendous episode; it is likely that the HM is overly anxious to re-establish its `credentials' as a group of the Jamaati persuasion and demonstrate its `striking' power.

Whichever outfit was culpable, going by the timing of the explosion, it looked as if the craftily-designed attack employing a combination of hand grenade and timer-linked IED was the militants' answer to the Home Minister, Mr. L. K. Advani's authoritative statement in Parliament only the previous day on the `post-ceasefire revocation' context. He had asserted that the security forces were ready to ``face the challenge and threat of renewed militancy'' and went on to claim that ``it is the militants who should worry''. And elsewhere, the Defence Minister, Mr. George Fernandes, had held out the assurance that the Army's ``preparedness remained unchanged'', implying there was no lowering of guard on its part. A disturbing aspect of the official responses at the Central level to such terrorist killings in Jammu and Kashmir - or for that matter, militant attacks elsewhere in the country - is that they have almost invariably been restricted, by and large, to deploring the incidents and seeing the hand of Pakistan or its ISI in them. True to pattern, the Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, has declared emphatically that the car bomb blast was executed ``at the behest of Pakistan'' and termed it ``yet another example of Islamabad's sustained campaign of cross-border terrorism''.

The Government's anxiety to expose Pakistan's role in `exporting' terrorism in the name of `jehad' and build up international pressure against that country does make a lot of political and diplomatic sense. Given the volume of hard evidence that is already available on this count, one wonders whether the political establishment in New Delhi should need to be pressing that point at every conceivable opportunity as it seems to be doing and, in the process, let that objective become an obsession of sorts. The rhetoric of the kind being dished out by the powers that be will not amount to much in fighting the militants on the ground. From this standpoint, it is imperative to evolve an effective counter strategy, which envisages a judicious deployment of the Army and other security forces, strengthening of the intelligence system and better coordination among the various agencies involved in the anti-insurgency operations, not to speak of keeping proper vigil on the borders. Of relevance here are the gaping holes the Kargil conflict had exposed in the country's intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance networks. With Independence Day - an occasion the subversive forces look forward to for mounting a major strike - just a few days away, the civil administration and the defence authorities need to get their act together if the nation is not to witness the likes of the Pahalgam and Srinagar episodes or worse yet again. The multi- pronged endeavour to frustrate the militants' attempts to kill or otherwise strike terror should continue alongside the moves for finding a political solution through a constructive dialogue with various groups and interests concerned.

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Section  : Opinion
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