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July 21, 2006

Pakistan: Kashmir Islamists Threaten India

AKI reports today that the head of an alliance of various groups which are fighting in Indian Kashmir, calling itself the United Jihad Council (UJC) has claimed that its activists will be made to take its battle to India if Pakistan does not continue to give its support for the secession of Jammu & Kashmir state (Indian Kashmir) from India.

Syed Salahuddin said: "The movement for the right of self-determination of Kashmir is at a crossroads as Pakistan pulls out its support for the Kashmiris and India escalates its repression of the people of Kashmir. If this repression continues, the freedom fighters’ armed guerrilla battle would not be restricted to Kashmir and would reach to India."

Salahuddin is also head of Hizbul Mujahideen the largest of the militant groups surrently engaged in guerilla warfare in Indian Kashmir. He was speaking to journalists in Islamabad yesterday.

60,000 people are thought to have been killed in the insurgency in Kashmir, which began in earnest in 1989. India and Pakistan have been involved in a process of rapprochement since 2003, a process which has been hindered as a result of the Mumbai train blasts of July 11.

Salahuddin said that because of US pressure, Pakistan is less supportive of the "Kasmiri cause". He said: "We are facing an odd situation. Pakistan has backed out of its commitment from the Kashmiri cause and Indian repression has escalated against Kashmiris. In the past we practiced a code of ethics under which we restricted our struggle strictly within the bounds of Indian-held [Indian-administered] Kashmir but the situation is pushing us to a stage where we will be forced to spread our armed struggle in India to behold the Indian leadership of the repressive acts against Kashmiris."

There are other factors which may also be weakening the jihadists - the support of the populace themselves. In Pakistani Kashmir, AJK, according to the Peninsula of July 14, the elections in the region brought 20 seats out of 40 for the "moderate" Muslim Conference, and Islamist parties did not fare well. The Pakistan People's Party gained seven seats, but it is thought that independents will ally themselves with the Muslim Conference to form the regional government in the AJK Legislative Assembly.

Last week, the day after the Mumbai blasts, AL Qaeda announced that it had a wing based in Indian-controlled Kashmir (Jammu and Kashmir State), reported Fox News and Associated Press via Dawn.

In a statement read over the phone to Kashmir's Current News Service, a man who called himself Abu al-Hadeed said: "Whosoever has carried out the attacks in Bombay (Mumbai), we express our gratitude and happiness." Al-Hadded said that the Mumbai bombings were "a reaction to what is happening to the minorities, especially Muslims in India."

"We appeal to Muslims in India to fight for freedom and Islam and choose jihad as their way to achieve freedom and establishing Islamic ways."

He added: "We shall be giving out statements regularly and will soon announce our aims and objectives." He also said that the leader of the Al Qaeda Kashmir network was Abu Abdul Rehman al-Ansari.

Al-Hadeed spoke in Urdu, but claimed: "Henceforth our statements will be in Arabic."

The announcement was taken seriously by Indian intelligence. An intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: "Our immediate effort is to locate the caller and ascertain the authenticity of the claim....The government is taking it very seriously."

On Saturday (July 15),an Indian army commander announced that the military would give a "befitting reply" to any actions by Al Qaeda in Jammu & Kashmir state, noted the Hindustan Times.

Lt Gen SS Dhillon, General Officer Commanding of the Army's 15 Corps told press: "We will give a befitting reply by our deeds if Al-Qaeda starts its operations in Jammu and Kashmir."

He said that such claims were nothing new. "Similar reports had appeared in 2002 and if Al-Qaeda starts its operations (Jammu and Kashmir), we will give it a befitting reply."

"The terrorists continue to change their tactics. In 2004, they resorted to suicide attacks, keeping the security forces on tenterhooks. Last year, it was the time of car bombs and currently they carry out grenade attacks," he said.

He said that the army had recovered 2,000 kilograms of the high explosive RDX and 29,085 in its operations, which had saved "many precious lives". He said there were still between 900 and 1,300 terrorists still operating in the Kashmir valley. "It may be somewhere near 1,300," he said.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at July 21, 2006 3:36 PM

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