Neeraj Rohmetra
JAMMU, Aug 3: The Pakistani Government is providing complete back up to the terrorist organisation functioning in areas of Pakistan and Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK). Besides, they have also been continuously trying to push terrorists along the Line of Control (LoC) and this remained an area of serious concern for the Government of India.
These facts have come to fore in the recent report titled: The ‘Country Report on Terrorism 2011′, which had been released by the United States State Department this week.
The Report has categorically stated as to how the Kashmir-centric terrorist organisations are functioning under the nose of the Pakistani Government and there seemed to be no effort to curb the activities of these outfits as per the facts stated in this report.
While as the trade talks between India and Pakistan provided hope for reduced tensions between the two countries, but terrorist opponents of better India-Pakistan relations, such as the LeT, have long planned to derail any progress by launching new attacks.
Several terrorist organisations like LeT have also been collecting funds in the form of donations from wealthy persons including Kashmiri business persons and several Pakistan expatriate communities in the Middle East and Europe, particularly the United Kingdom, Islamic non-governmental organizations and Pakistani business families.
“The Government of India also reported a marked decline in the number of violent civilian and security force deaths by insurgents in the Northeastern part of the country. Besides, there were also far fewer violent incidents in Jammu and Kashmir”, the report said.
In its fight against terrorism, Secretary of State of the Department had also designated certain organisations as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) in accordance with Section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). The FTO designations played a critical role in the fight against terrorism and are an effective means of curtailing support for terrorist activities. Those designated as FTO included Harkat-ul-Jihad Islami (HuJI), Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HuM), Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and Lashkar e-Toiba (LeT), which are also conducting terrorist activities in Jammu and Kashmir State.
“These organizations’ terrorist activity or terrorism threaten the security of U.S nationals or the national security (national defense, foreign relations, or the economic interests) of the United States”, the Report stated
The Report said, “in South Asia, groups such as Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and the Haqqani Network continued to cite U.S. interests as legitimate targets for attacks.
Elaborating further on the FTOs, the Report stated that Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HuM) had several hundred of armed supporters located in PoK and some militancy infested areas of Jammu and Kashmir. Their supporters were mostly Pakistanis but also include Afghans and Arab veterans of the Afghan war. “The organisation is based in Muzaffarabad, Rawalpindi, and several other cities in Pakistan and the terrorist outfit conduct insurgent and terrorist operations primarily in Kashmir and Afghanistan.
Further, the outfit trained its militants in Pakistan, Afghanistan and collected donations from wealthy and grassroot donors in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and other Gulf States. HuM’s financial collection methods include soliciting donationsin magazine ads and pamphlets”, the Report stated.
Another FTO is Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), which is one of the largest and most ‘proficient’ of the traditionally Kashmir focused militant groups that has the ability to severely disrupt already delicate regional relations. “The outfit has LeT has conducted a number of operations against Indian troops and civilian targets in Jammu and Kashmir.
The actual size of LeT is unknown, but it has several thousand members in Pakistan occupied Kashmir and Punjab Pakistan, besides southern Kashmir, and Doda regions. LeT has global connections and a strong operational network throughout South Asia. The outfit maintained a number of facilities, including training camps in Pakistan and collected donations from Pakistani expatriate communities in the Middle East and Europe, particularly the United Kingdom; Islamic non-governmental organizations; and Pakistani and Kashmiri business people.
“In 2011, LeT was responsible for multiple attacks. Most of the attacks occurred in Jammu and Kashmir, with the deadliest being a May 27, 2011 attack on a private residence in the city of Kupwara that killed two civilians. In a notable 2011 counter terrorism success, police in Kashmir shot and killed a senior LeT operative, Azhar Malik, after they surrounded a house where he was hiding in the town of Sopore”.
Still another terrorist outfit that has been active in Kashmir is Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), which had several hundred armed supporters including a large cadre of former HuM members – located in Pakistan, Kashmir and Doda regions. “In 2011, JeM restarted its fundraising and recruitment activities in Pakistan. In anticipation of asset seizures by the Pakistani Government, JeM withdrew funds from bank accounts and invested in legal businesses, such as commodity trading, real estate, and production of consumer goods. In addition, JeM collected funds through donation requests in magazines and pamphlets, sometimes using charitable causes to solicit donations”.
The outfit continued to engage in encounters throughout 2008 and 2009 and in March 2011, security forces killed chief JeM commander Sajad Afghani and his bodyguard in Kashmir.
The Report stated that another FTO – Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HuJI) has an estimated strength of several hundred members and its operations extend throughout South Asia, with its terrorist operations focused primarily in India and Afghanistan.
The outfit had experienced a number of internal splits and a portion of the group has aligned with al-Qaeda (AQ) in recent years, including training its members in AQ training camps. Mohammad Ilyas Kashmiri, one of HuJI’s top leaders who also served as an AQ military commander and strategist, was killed on June 3, 2011.
“HuJI had been involved in a number of terrorist attacks in recent years in India including May 2007 Hyderabad mosque attack, which killed 16 and injured 40, and the March 2007 Varanasi attack, which killed 25 and injured 100. HuJI claimed credit for the September 7, 2011 bombing of the New Delhi High Court, which left at least 11 dead and an estimated 76 wounded.”
The documents stated that India remained one of the world’s most terrorism-afflicted countries and one of the most persistently targeted countries by transnational terrorist groups such as LeT. While the number of deaths attributable to terrorist violence was lower than in 2010, the loss of over 1,000 lives (civilian, security forces, and terrorists) still made it amply clear that several terrorist organisations were targeting the country.
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