Indian security officials are changing tactics to tackle the possible use of magnetic bombs that can target military convoys, despite the revival of a ceasefire accord between India and Pakistan along the Line of Control (LoC).
Reuters quoted a Kashmir based senior police official as saying that security forces were changing protocols to deal with the new threat of “sticky” bombs, which have wreaked havoc in Afghanistan. The measures included increasing the distance between private and military traffic, installing more cameras on vehicles and using drones to monitor convoys.
Another official said that magnetic bombs were not produced in Kashmir, signalling that they were being smuggled from Pakistan.
“All of them have come via drone drops and tunnels,” he said, asking not to be named.
The heightened threat perception in Kashmir is emerging despite last week’s military accord between India and Pakistan to revive a dormant agreement of 2003 of not exchanging fire along the LoC, which has been used to infiltrate cross-border terrorists inside Kashmir.
Barely had the ink dried on the revival of the accord following a conversation and a joint statement to top military officials of the two countries to stop firing along the LoC, an Al Qaeda affiliated group was off the blocks to condemn the move, and reaffirm its commitment to Kashmiri Jihad sans Islamabad.
In fact, it accused Pakistan of “backstabbing” the cause of Kashmiri independence.
“Whether we like it or not, both Pakistan and Indian states have mutually degraded the resistance movement in Kashmir and Pakistan has been long trying to settle for the status quo, hence backstabbing the Kashmir’s cause of independence,” a statement by an individual called Khalid, Commander Khalid, Islamic Emirate of Kashmir Mujahideen Ghazwat Ul Hind read.
The Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind is an Islamic terrorist Jihadi organization and Al Qaeda cell that is active in Kashmir. It was formerly led by Zakir Rashid Bhat also called Zakir Musa, who saw himself as part of a global Jihad, which include Kashmir, given its international outlook, the group on 7 December 2017 the group released a statement that condemned US President Donald Trump’s declaration of moving the United States embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. It the same month a video was released where a video of a Kashmiri militant declared allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and declaring a new ISIL Province in Kashmir.
Zakir Musa is said to have joined the Sayeed Salahudin’s group Hizbul Mujahideen in 2013. He has been described as "part of a new generation of tech-savvy, well-educated militants" who became involved in the conflict after the 2010 Kashmir unrest, on the footsteps of Burhan Muzaffar Wani who was killed in 2016.
The statement said that since the tenure of former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, the gradual consolidation of man-made Line of Control has not only divided the people but also severely denting the armed movement inside Kashmir valley.
“The Pakistani/Afghanistan Muslim brothers have been unable to help their brothers inside the valley because of LOC. Therefore, we strongly condemn the recent meetings between the Indian and Pakistani army and castigate their resolve of ceasefire and unholy agreements.”
The group reaffirmed its “resolve of Jihad in Kashmir valley” and pointed out that “by the grace Allah no LoC, no agreements, no ceasefire will stop us from waging a war against occupying Indian army in Kashmir”.
The consternation of hard-line terror groups such as, Islamic Emirate of Kashmir Mujahideen Ghazwat Ul Hind is not hard to explain.
The deal is likely to provide a major boost to the peace and development in Kashmir, as cross-border infiltration of terror groups was usually conducted under the cover of artillery barrages along the LoC by Pakistan. An end to violence in Kashmir in a post Artcile-370 scenario, and the elimination of the threat of two-front war with Pakistan and China is further expected to have positive impact on the badly strained Indo-Pakistan ties.
