Although the group found it extremely difficult to find recruits and support from Kashmir in the initial days, money and fire power proved a breakthrough. Based in Bandipore forests, the group mercilessly punished those who disobeyed its diktat; others were co-opted with the help of money. In the short span of three years, LeT had established a network of training camps and shelter houses across Kashmir that one of its operational commanders, Mohammad Muzammil planned several pan-India terrorist attacks, beginning with the September 2002 attack on the Akshardham Temple in Gandhinagar. Since then, LeT’s growth in Kashmir has been steady, and growing from strength to strength, finding new recruits, operational areas and targets.
This phase of consolidation, which witnessed a closing of ranks among different terrorist and extremist groups of various and even disparate ideologies in Kashmir and elsewhere in India, is currently being replaced with a new strategy to integrate into civil society. This is being carried out by religious decrees to observe purdah, boycott certain government functions and similar other directions to ’safeguard’ Islamic traditions. The group has also been instigating, organising and supporting a whole variety of civilian protests in the valley, including bandhs.
There are also reports of the group organising protests against the killing of militants in encounters, making it difficult for the security forces to operate in an already extremely hostile environment. Frequent protests against custodial deaths have helped the LeT cause in striking a chord with the populace. Recently, the LeT spokesman in Srinagar announced the setting up of Kashmir Elders Council with representatives from United Jehad Council, All Party Hurriyat Conference, Kashmir Bar Council and the media and academic circles. The agenda of this Council, according to the press statement, is to investigate allegations of human rights violations against Indian security forces.
There are other equally important strands of this strategy which merits close attention. The group has been systematically trying to infiltrate the political, bureaucratic and security establishment in Kashmir with occasional successes till now. To illustrate, a Srinagar lawyer and a political activist, Shabbir Ahmad Bukhari was caught for providing fake ID cards of youth wing of National Conference to three LeT terrorists. Likewise, Shakeel Ahmad Shafi, a member of the State Youth Congress, facilitated LeT terrorists to smuggle weapons and communication equipment through high security zones by providing them with party ID cards. The group also managed to turn around a few policemen and Army personnel to help them with safe passage, prior warnings and even weapons and ammunition. The recent disclosure by National Security Advisor MK Narayanan about the possibility of LeT attempting to infiltrate into the Indian Air Force is an indicative of this new strategy.
This strategy falls neatly into LeT’s overall objective of liberating Kashmir, Hyderabad and Junagarh and affirming the validity of the Two Nation Theory, and sow seeds of another Pakistan!
Notes
- Indian Muslims Struggle for a Muslim state within India and jihad, Dawa Team, August 1, 2006. Accessed on August 14, 2006 at www.jamatedawah.org/marticle_detail.php?article_id=16&issue_id=2
- Spare SIMI- Enough is Enough, The Milli Gazette Online, September 16, 2006. Accessed on October 20 at: www.milligazette.com/dailyupdate/20060916_SIMI_muslims_india_organisation.htm
- Erosion of Secularism, Explosion of Jihad: Explaining Islamist Radicalization in India, Irfan Ahmad, University of Amsterdam. Submitted to the university as a thesis, the paper is based on 16-months of field work in India.
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