Security agencies in Jammu and Kashmir are convinced that the July 8 terror attack on an army vehicle would not have been possible without the locals’ support to the terrorists who are understood to be “foreigners” and not the “locals”.
Besides the local support, the gross intelligence failure also needs to be probed as to how could it (the local support) go unnoticed. Somebody somewhere took his job very casually with gross negligence at the cost of national security.
So far, the preliminary investigations suggest, that the attackers in all likelihood had infiltrated through the International Border from Pakistan. They walked all through to reach the place where they attacked the army vehicle deep inside the Indian territory.
The place is about 150 km from the international border from where the terrorists might have infiltrated. The security agencies are intrigued as to how the terrorists managed to travel such a long distance without getting noticed anywhere. During their passage they must have stopped at different places, used transport and interacted with people.
Moreover, when they were carrying sophisticated weapons including guns and grenades they used in the attack, how could it be possible that nobody noticed them? This makes it obvious that the terrorists were helped and guided by people who were familiar with the terrain, and they can only be the locals.
The security forces have rounded up several people since the attacks, who are suspected of having facilitated the terrorists by way of logistics and transportation. This suggests that the terror organisations have established networks deep inside at places, which were, till now, known to be untouched by terrorism.
There are multiple factors responsible for such networking. The latest advances in communication technology help in the indoctrination of “vulnerable minds”, who readily volunteer themselves for such activities. And it is not very easy to detect and identify them.
Another possibility is the presence of a large number of foreigners in the union territory.
There are thousands of Rohingya refugees who fled Myanmar and travelled all the way to reach and “settle” in the Jammu region. It is also intriguing why the Rohingya refugees belonging to the Muslim community chose to stay in the Hindu-majority Jammu region instead of the Muslim-majority Kashmir region.
Around 2010, the then Jammu and Kashmir government offered a “rehabilitation” policy to those youth who had joined militancy. They were provided a chance to return to the mainstream.
A significant number of these militants were staying in Pakistan, from where they returned to Jammu and Kashmir. Many of them had got married in Pakistan. When they came back, they brought their wives along, who are also staying here and have not been deported.
While the security agencies are right now combing the forest areas using all sorts of resources including helicopters to physically find out the terrorists, the more serious challenge will be to tackle the “online indoctrination” through social media platforms.
With easy access to the internet, the “highly impressionable and vulnerable minds” end up easy targets who are willing to go to any extent.
In Kashmir valley, the local support to the militants was pronounced, hence easy to tackle. Moreover, most parts of the Kashmir valley, including the capital city of Srinagar and other major towns do not have difficult terrain, which would provide easy hiding places for the terrorists.
Now, the terrorists and their handlers seem to have strategically chosen the areas with difficult terrain where the terrorists can hide easily and will be very difficult to trace.
But again, in these areas the local support will be essential, which they have managed to identify and use also.
It is indeed going to be a serious challenge for the security agencies to counter the terror in such terrain. It will require an entirely renewed and reworked strategy on multiple fronts. This will need to be done at the earliest and with a firm hand.
The gains made in Kashmir valley, particularly in the aftermath of the abrogation of Article 370 must not be allowed to be negated in the Jammu region.
The Government of India will need a “surgical operation” of different sorts in the union territory, where heads must roll to let the situation drift and derail to such an extent that terrorists are striking at will and wherever they want to.
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