The challenge of militancy

THE KILLINGS OF Amarnath pilgrims at Sheshnag and the massacre of innocent civilians in a Doda village, separated by less than 24 hours and together accounting for over 25 deaths, are a clear and ominous pointer to the sort of challenge the security forces are up against in militancy-stricken Jammu and Kashmir. That the abrupt collapse of the Agra summit - a disappointing denouement to what was truly a major initiative for peace through negotiations at the highest political level - would provoke the insurgent elements to strike with greater vigour was only to be expected. Indeed, the pro-Pakistan outfits such as Lashkar-e- Toiba and Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, who had made no secret of their designs, have made it a point to sustain pressure by resorting to murderous attacks even on the summit-eve and while the talks were on, their targets being military/paramilitary camps. And their refrain was that they would continue to target security forces and Government installations as long as India refused to accept Kashmir as a ``disputed territory'' and ``withdraw its forces from the Valley''. For all the publicly enunciated strategy of `selective targeting' of Government establishments and security personnel, the jehadi groups - particularly the ones manned by mercenaries - have precious little in their track record to substantiate it. The Sheshnag and Doda episodes only serve to reinforce this point about the militants being totally devoid of scruples and basic concerns for human values. It is strange that Gen. Musharraf should have chosen to describe such forces as freedom fighters.

With the Amarnath pilgrimage season yet to be over and given the heightened threat from the militants, the civil administration and the security establishment have their task cut out in the immediate context. Even last year, over 30 persons were killed in an attack on the Pahalgam base camp by an outfit that was out to sabotage the ceasefire tried out on the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen's initiative. After all, can there be a softer target than the hordes of pilgrims trekking to the holy shrine? The official response to the Sheshnag killings has been on much-too-familiar lines. The attack has been vehemently condemned for its savagery, and high-powered ministerial teams have made visits to make a spot assessment of the security milieu. That the Yatra remained suspended only very briefly on account of the dastardly attack by militants should indeed have come as a matter of profound relief and reassurance to the pilgrims, apart from being a measure of the administration's confidence in its ability to see the pilgrimage through against all odds. On test will be the effectiveness - in qualitative and quantitative terms - of the `beefed up security' arrangement that is claimed to have been put in place.

The grisly Doda episode has exposed in its own way the strategic and logistical inadequacies of the anti-insurgency campaign in general, as much as it has proclaimed the insidious designs of the foreign-based militant outfits. Whether it is stopping infiltration of terrorists into or tackling militancy within Jammu and Kashmir, the onus lies primarily with the Central and State Governments. It would, of course, be quite logical and perfectly in order to seek the assurance of Pakistan in ending the menace (to the extent that it derives sustenance and support from across the border). But there is no way they can make the perceived non-cooperation of the neighbour an excuse for not discharging the responsibility they owe to the citizenry. In the course of the polemical exchanges between the two sides (in the context of the Agra summit), the Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, declared, with a palpable sense of authority and vehemence, that India has the strength and the stamina to stop terrorism in Kashmir. All that needs to be done is to demonstrate it on the ground by initiating substantive measures that address, not just the policing aspects, but also, more critically, the concerns which are at the root of the pervasive sense of alienation of the people of Jammu and Kashmir.

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Section  : Opinion
Next     : 'Sivaji' V.C. Ganesan, 1927-2001