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| India-Pakistan | |
| The Waiting Game | |
| 2006-08-20 | |
| Cover story in "The Herald" - a Pakistani magazine As the frontier summer intensifies, the breeze in the serene mountain village of Hisari near Garhi Habibullah is pleasantly cool. South of the village, spread on the pine-covered slopes of a hill overlooking Kunhar River, is the guardroom of a camp run by Hizbul Mujahideen (HM). A jeep track leads past the barrier into the residential quarters, a series of barracks each with its small kitchen. A separate building houses the camp’s office and a small library. There is a mosque, which serves as the main lecture hall and a main kitchen that cooks three meals a day for the 250 residents. But unlike the usual verve and operational precision that mark life at such camps, the atmosphere in the Hisari camp appears to be one of lethargy and disorientation. Some distance from the residential compound, on a level ground that is fenced off, a dozen men wearing T-shirts and track pants are playing football. In the residential area, there are signs of gardening and rabbit farming by the residents who prefer to run their independent kitchens. Others loiter inside the office or library, or listen to patriotic songs on the cassette players they are allowed in the camp. What is going on? “The boys are frustrated,” confides a senior inmate. “The Pakistanis have cut off their budget and they are left with little hope of seeing action in the Indian Kashmir.”
This situation is the result of what some term Islamabad’s policy of “demobilising militants” to create conditions for a negotiated settlement of the Kashmir issue. This policy marks a radical departure from Islamabad’s earlier support to Kashmiri militants. “The top brass of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) conveyed to the Kashmiri militant leaders in January that they should not even think of crossing the Line of Control (LoC), armed or not,” says one militant leader based in Islamabad. | |
| Posted by:john |
| #8 Any of them ever think of becoming auto mechanics? That at least has a future ... Hey, by strict definition, wormfood is a "future" too. Apparently, more than a thousand trained militants from the Indian Kashmir are currently stranded in three HM camps in the Hazara region of the Frontier province alone. Isn't there some way to arrange some spectacular "work accidents" at these "camps"? A couple of ammunition dump "explosions" would go a long way towards solving this problem. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2006-08-20 20:48 |
| #7 The desparate pakistani attempts to link the plane plot to al qaeda in Afghanistan and to deflect attention from the LeT and JeM camps that trained the would be bombers result from this demobilization policy. |
| Posted by: john 2006-08-20 17:45 |
| #6 would this be the founder? Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front: Mohammad Maqbool Bhat No, it was Amanullah Khan who spilled the beans about the 1987 meetings. This policy of holding jihadis in reserve will result in attacks on western targets that will invite retaliation on Pakistan. The ISI simply cannot control these folk. While India is next door, a trained jihadi will have been viewing inflamatory arab media footage from the Gaza, Lebanon and Iraq. This makes the US a preferred target. If a jihadi gets his hand on a pakistani nuke, he will prefer to attack "the great satan" rather then India. |
| Posted by: john 2006-08-20 17:42 |
| #5 John thx for the report, super as per usual. would this be the founder? Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front: Mohammad Maqbool Bhat ~~~~ While militants of the Pakistani groups can just walk out of the camp, go home and start a new life, Kashmiris from India enjoy no such luxuries,” says a Kashmiri fighter hibernating in Islamabad. Given that they are “outsiders” in Pakistan, these militants are subject to a different camp discipline. this is when you realize that you've reached a station in life lower than whale shit. ~~~~~ Larger Pakistani organisations such at LT and JM have been able to diversify themselves in the aftermath of last year’s earthquake and have registered as relief organisations under different names, but the predominantly Kashmiri HM is caught between a rock and a hard place. “Since 9/11 we have known that this would happen.We even made some preparations, but the axe has fallen a bit too soon,” says a senior HM activist. JI & JM, "thanks for the help USA" see ROP |
| Posted by: RD 2006-08-20 13:08 |
| #4 As the frontier summer intensifies, the breeze in the serene mountain village of Hisari near Garhi Habibullah is pleasantly cool. Some distance from the residential compound, on a level ground that is fenced off, a dozen men wearing T-shirts and track pants are playing football. In the residential area, there are signs of gardening and rabbit farming by the residents who prefer to run their independent kitchens. Sounds like the last episode of Abu Spin & Marty, the one that ends with Annette in a Burka. |
| Posted by: 6 2006-08-20 12:29 |
| #3 This came out in a book published this year by a JKLF founder (can't remember his name right now) It was JKLF chief Amanullah Khan in the second volume of his autobiography Jehad-e-Musalsal published June 2005. "the ISI first established contact with the JKLF in early 1987 through the organisation's senior leader Dr.Farook Haider. After lengthy deliberations they were asked to start an armed campaign on July 13,1988. But the campaign could not begin before July 31 that year, when bomb blasts rocked the Amar Singh club and the central post and telegraph office in Srinagar. The marriage between the ISI and the JKLF couldnot last for more than a year. The JKLF parted ways with the ISI in the early 90s when the intelligence agency idicated that it would prefer to have an ISI official attending JKLF organisational meetings in the capacity of an observer. This request cvam at a time when pro-Pakistan militants with experience in guerilla warfare had become available in large numbers from Afghanistan following the withdrawal of Soviet troops. |
| Posted by: john 2006-08-20 09:26 |
| #2 It is striking that a Pakistani publication quite clearly states the source of the Kashmir jihad, its funding and official backing. There is none of the stuff you would see in a NYT or reuters story - "India claims that Pakistan backs the rebels but Pakistan denies this". Everone in Pakistan knows the truth and there is no need to obfuscate it. VS Naipaul writes that Indian textbooks are full of lies about muslim rule. They whitewash the history of muslim atrocities. To get the true story, one must read the Pakistani textbooks which reproduce the actual accounts from the muslims kings where they boast that to glorify allah, they slaughtered X hundred thousand hindus , they burned Y hundreds of temples, they enslaved Z thousand women. |
| Posted by: john 2006-08-20 09:14 |
| #1 it is now on the record that General Zia-ul-HaqÂ’s government orgaised the pro-independence Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front to start the insurgency in Kashmir in 1988 This came out in a book published this year by a JKLF founder (can't remember his name right now). It is often claimed that rigged elections sparked the uprising but the campaign by Zia predated the 1988 elections. It was launched after the end of Societ occupation of Afghanistan, when Pakistan was able to reorient the jihad infrastructure towards India. Thomas Mark's study of counterinsurgency in Kashmir points out that it coincided with a demographic bulge - lots of idle young men with nothing to do. They jumped onto buses whose conductors shouted "'pindi 'pindi" (Rawalpindi) and were carried into Pakistan for training. Srinagar was a no go area for Indian security forces. It took a sustained army operation to reassert control. The entire generation of young kashmiri muslims, drawn to the idea of jihad were slaughtered over the next decade by the Indian counterinsurgency campaign. India traditionally grinds down insurgencies, using its huge military manpower to pin down and local police forces to exterminate insurgents. |
| Posted by: john 2006-08-20 09:06 |