GUNS OF TERRORISM AND ROSES OF PEACE IN JAMMU AND KASHMIR
BY: PROF. NEELAM MAHAJAN SINGH
I am a daughter of Kashmir, a title given to me by Late Sheikh Nazir, General Secretary of JK National Conference. I was born in Srinagar. My parents, Shri Jaswant Rai jee and Smt. Lajjya Devi belonged to Mirpur, now a part of Pakistan occupied Kashmir. Mirpur is now submerged in Mangla Dam. The British imperial colonialism, through their policies of ' 'divide and rule' left permanent scars on Indian nation, perpetually facing the terror of neighbouring Pakistan.
Like the whole of India, my heart is bleeding at the ghastly terrorist's attack, on the tourists in Pahalgam. Several political theories are being propounded on the timing of this terror attack.
Oh My Kashmir, how long will the Jhelum and Chenab rivers be wil filled with 'red blood' of our para military forces, army and innocent citizens. My fingers shiver, and my tearful eyes have held me sleepless and mourning, ever since this ghastly terror attack in Pahalgam.
“गर फिरदौस, बर रूहे ज़मीन अस्त, हमीं अस्तो, हमीं अस्तो, हमीं अस्त।” “अगर इस धरती पर कहीं स्वर्ग है, तो वह यहीं है, यहीं है, यहीं है …” कवि अमीर खुसरो द्वारा विस्मय में बोले गए। आश्चर्यजनक, कश्मीर घाटी आज भी कई यात्रियों के दिल में इसी भावना को जगाती है।
Ever since 1947, the division of Kashmir, between India and Pakistan, has been a bone of contention between the two countries. I've heard innumerable stories of escape of people from the gunfire, death of women and children, during the horrors of partition. After the accession of Jammu Kashmir with the Union of India by Maharaj Hari Singh, erstwhile ruler of Jammu and Kashmir, India and Pakistan have been on an edge. The poisonous fangs of militancy and terrorism re-emerged in late 1990s.
I have been incessantly covering the Central government and it's relations with the State's political leaders. Even in Doordarshan News Division, I was sent to cover Secretary level and heads of states meetings of India and Pakistan. That consolidated my links with the Ministry of External Affairs of the Government.
The 'Pahalgam Terror Attack April 2025' attack has exposed the fallacy of 'return of peace in the valley of Kashmir, post September 2024 assembly elections, after the orders of Supreme Court of India. Why tackling cross-border infiltration is the key to curbing terror in Kashmir? This issue can, frankly speaking, never be resolved. Hunting down terrorists in the jungles of Jammu Kashmir is a Herculean task. What needs to be done is to prevent them from crossing over in the first place.
This requires a robust counter-infiltration grid.
Thr Pahalgam terror attack, Abrogation of Article 370, border security, are a few catalyst factors. It must be categorically stated that this is a clear failure of intelligence gathering organizations, e.g. Intelligence Bureau, Research and Analysis wing and JK Police.
The Indian security force personnel are taken unaware by this calculated and well executed, suspected militant attack on tourists in Baisaran, near Pahalgam in south Kashmir's Anantnag district, on April 24, 2025. After killing 26 tourists in Baisaran, a meadow near Pahalgam in the lap of the Pir Panjal mountains, the five terrorists are learnt to have fled into the surrounding dense jungles that are spread across in hundreds of kilometres of rugged, difficult terrain.
This has left security forces with a daunting challenge — one that underlines the importance of a robust anti-infiltration grid to prevent terrorists from crossing over in the first place. India and Pakistan share more than 3,300-km-long border, of which close to 1,000 km lies in Jammu & Kashmir. Baisaran, 6 km from Pahalgam, is accessible only on foot or by pony. The meadow is ringed by the densely forested Pir Panjal mountains that stretch far, toward Kokernag and Kishtwar to the south and Balatal and Sonamarg to the north.
The dense jungles in the upper reaches of the Pir Panjal range provide ample avenues to avoid detection. It's a fact that visibility in these jungles is so poor that it is difficult to spot any movement, even 100 metres away. Tracking down suspects in these parts requires robust technical and human intelligence support. Over the last few years, the armed forces have suffered serious casualties chasing terrorists in these jungles. More than 50 Army personnel have lost their lives in encounters with terrorists in the Poonch, Rajouri, Kathua, and Doda regions.
Jammu has flared up, to reset counter-terror grid, fill ‘vacuum’. This is perhaps a direct consequence of Pakistan sending in highly trained terrorists, who operate in stealth and live off the jungle, into the Jammu region.
Sources say the Pahalgam terrorists were likely of this kind. At least three of the attackers are suspected to be from; "Once a terrorist is in, it is not easy to hunt him down. So the idea should be to not let him enter in the first place,” a senior security officer stated.
A robust counter-infiltration grid, which includes difficult-to-breach fencing, a strong intelligence network, and trained border-guarding manpower, is the need of the hour. This is more so because terror recruitment in the Valley itself is at the lowest it has ever been.
Chief of Army Staff General Upendra Dwivedi in January said that 60% of the 73 terrorists killed in counter-terror operations in J&K in 2024 were from Pakistan. Data supports the effectiveness of border fencing, which picked up pace after the 2003 ceasefire agreement between India and Pakistan. According to Intelligence Bureau figures, more than half of all infiltration attempts were successful in 2002.
By 2010, only a fifth of the attempts (52 out of 247) met with success. "In the ’90s, the infiltration would be in the thousands. Now it has tapered off to between 50 and 100,” a J&K Police officer said. The India-Pakistan border (including the Line of Control) is almost entirely fenced.
Since 2014, there has been a push to make this fencing more robust, and plug riverine gaps in the Jammu region with technological solutions. This received a major impetus with the Comprehensive Integrated Border Management System (CIBMS) project, launched after the 2016 Pathankot attack. The CIBMS deploys a range of state-of-the-art surveillance technologies, thermal imagers, infra-red and laser-based intruder alarms, aerostats for aerial surveillance, unattended ground sensors, radars, sonar systems for riverine borders, and fibre-optic sensors — that provide real-time surveillance data to a command and control system. However, it remains a work in progress.
In October 2016, then Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh had announced that the India-Pakistan border would be sealed by December 2018. Cut to December 2023, with work still pending, Home Minister Amit Shah revised the deadline to December 2025.
Progress of the CIBMS has been slowed by the non-availability of required technology and, at times, incoherent planning. Apart from plugging riverine patches, fencing and border security along the LoC presents numerous challenges. During winter, the LoC experiences heavy snowfall: snow can pile up to 15 feet high. Almost a third of the border fence gets damaged annually as a result.
(Photo Courtesy: The Sunday Mail)
“Pickets get bent and the concertina is crushed, which takes three to four months to fully repair. All the material has to be hauled up through tough terrain, making repairs an enormous task,” said Lt. Gen. D. S. Hooda (Retd), former General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the Indian Army’s Northern Command. He added: “The time this process takes [to fix fences] leaves gaps which are exploited by terrorists.”
“A lot of manpower is stationed along the LoC. But these are inhospitable conditions with winter temperatures going way below freezing. Fog and rain can impact alertness. Snow gales have created accuracies difficult. Sometimes, we used to struggle to give one full night’s sleep to a soldier in three days,” said Lt. General Hooda, who retired in 2016.
Technology, too, has its limitations. Gadgets such as night-vision devices have a particular life. They don’t last for 12 hours. And at many places, there is no power to charge them. What we need is a smart fence. One design we are looking at includes a sensor which sends a message to the nearest command centre the moment the fence is cut.
After the Pahalgam terror attack, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said from an election rally in Bihar, that the perpetrators of this attack will not be spared. Let the world leaders know that our resolve to eliminate the bases of terrorists is resolute. It would have been better, if PMO advised the Prime Minister to make a special broadcast to the nation from Doordarshan, instead of a declaration from political rally. India is taking a few steps against Pakistan.
India is suspending the 65-year-old Indus Waters Treaty, which is funded by the World Bank. Desperate step are needed in desperate times. There's more hype than actual as it's a a World Bank supported project.
Pakistan has already announced annulment of The Shimla Pact between PM Indira Gandhi and Zulfikar Ali Bhutoo of Pakistan.
Milestone treaties like the Indus Waters Treaty and the Shimla Pact have been paused as both countries rewrite the terms of diplomatic engagement. Tensions have escalated to such a point where Pakistan’s Prime Minister’s Office put out a statement saying any attempt by India to interfere in the Indus water supply to Pakistan will amount to an “act of war.” Here is a timeline detailing the developments. "You cut our water, we will shed your blood," roars Bilawall Bhutto.
In the aftermath of Indian and Pakistani responses, the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appealed to both governments to exercise “maximum restraint.” He called for a peaceful resolution of the conflict between both countries, through “meaningful, mutual engagement.”
On the other hand, the World Bank, which is a signatory to the Indus Water Treaty, said that it does not interfere in “treaty-related sovereign decisions taken by its member countries.”
The houses of two LeT terrorists suspected to be behind the Pahalgam attack were were blasted to ruins in Pulwama and Anantnag. They belonged to Asif Sheikh at Tral and Adil Thoker.
Pakistan suspends the 1972 Simla Agreement: What is the agreement all about? Pakistan Senate passes resolution rejecting India's 'attempt' to link Pahalgam terror attack with Islamabad as preposterous.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi all cut short their overseas trips to return to India after the attack, with Mr. Modi promising the terrorists “punishment beyond their imagination.”
The Baglayar Hydro power plant is a heart line between India and Pakistan. The hyper threats of cutting the water of Indus river to Pakistan isn't feasible diplomatically.
In retrospect, India is a nation in grief, where boorish terrorism has swallowed 26 men from different states. Our deepest sympathies with the grieving families. Let's be resolute as a nation, where there should not be any divide on the basis of Hindu Muslim religion. As a multipluralistic society, let's be steadfast in creating a global example, as a united nation in the times of this terrible onslaught by the gun. Let's wait for the roses of peace to bloom in the valley, the crown of India.
Prof. Neelam Mahajan Singh
(Sr. Journalist, Author, Doordarshan personality, political analyst, expert on Kashmir strategic affairs)
singhnofficial@gmail.com
Comments
Post a Comment