The rising dissonance between Kashmiri separatists and terrorists based in the Valley on the one hand and Pakistan-based terrorist commanders and cadres in Kashmir on the other has led Indian agencies to suspect that terror masterminds across the border may be covertly planning a new terrorist organisation in J&K, with focus on ex-Hizbul Mujahideen commander Zakir Musa.
According to intelligence sources, multiple statements over the past two weeks by Musa, the self-styled successor of slain Hizbul leader Burhan Wani, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Kashmiri separatists and United Jehad Council chief Syed Salahuddin, coupled with images, videos and audio clips circulated on social media, point to “a widening conflict between key stakeholders of violence in the Valley”.
Intelligence sources told TOI Pakistan may be attempting a repeat of its Kashmir strategy of the 1990s, when the only terror organisation — the Jammu & Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) — was supplanted and eventually replaced by many new outfits by 1993-94.
“The case for Pakistan encouraging a new terror organisation in Kashmir, with complete deniability for itself, is strong. Musa is speaking a new anti-separatist, anti-Hizb and anti-Pakistan line, targeted at the Kashmiri youth. He is advocating ‘Islamist uprising for freedom of Kashmir’, said an officer.
On May 3-4, photographs of nine masked militants with a black flag similar to that of terror group Islamic State were displayed on social media in J&K. However, unlike the IS flag, the one in the image only had Islamic Kalima inscribed with an AK-47 insignia below —the difference, agencies believe, reflecting the desire of local terrorists to remain distinct from the IS brand.
Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba as well as PoK-based Hizbul supreme commander Salahuddin, in statements issued on May 10 and 12, respectively, denounced the images.
They claimed they had nothing to do with the IS and those waving IS flags and requested parents of Kashmiri youths as well as the youths themselves to avoid such influences.(ToI)