Reports are surfacing in Kashmir of local outfits staging a comeback have started pouring in from Pakistan-Controlled-Kashmir (PCK), where almost all militant outfits are based. According to the details made available by a local news agency, quite a few outfits would remain active in the coming days as all the smaller outfits have been directed to merge into them.
This year's lineup will include Hizbul Mujahideen, Jamiat-Ul-Mujahideen, Tehreek-Ul-Mujahideen, Harkat-e-Jehad-e-Islami, Al-Umar Mujahideen, Tehreek-e-Jehad, Islamic Front and Kashmir Resistance Force trying to dominate the militancy in the state in the near future.
Al-Khalid, a stray group of Hizbul Mujahideen (HM), has merged into HM after three years of independent existence. Another group, Al-Badr Mujahideen has joined Jamiat-ul-Mujahideen, and Hijb-e-Islami has been directed to join the Tehreek-ul-Mujahideen outfit, the report said.
Negotiations for merger between Tehreek-e-Jehad-e-Islami and Al-Baraq are stated to be in the final stages and they are merging under a new name.
They will continue to offer the same fine product line, however.
Similarly the stray group of Tehreek-e-Jehad that was operating under a PCK militant commander Ishfaq Balwal under code name Third Brigade has returned to the mother outfit. While Karvan-e-Jehad has been directed to merge into Al-Umar Mujahideen, Lashker-e-Islami has been asked to merge into Islamic Front.
The reports said all the militant outfits floated by various factions of the Peoples’ League have managed to forge a single outfit called Kashmir Resistance Force (KRF). The KRF will draw its cadres from the Al-Jehad, Hizbullah, Muslim Janbaaz Force and Al-Fateh. Since all these outfits, floated by various factions of the league, have strong Kashmiri identity, the aim of the exercise is to get back militancy to the locals in order to whitewash the allegations that non-local outfits are running the show in the name of Kashmir.
Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Muhammad, the two outfits having sizable non-Kashmiri membership have been asked to work with local outfits, as the the two are already in trouble because of the crackdown launched by Pakistan against the Jehadi cult after the September 11 and December 13 attacks in the US and India respectively. |