Once the shooting ended and police officers began background checks on the three suspected terrorists in the Shopian district of southern Kashmir earlier this month, they discovered that the three men fighting them did not belong to one terrorist group, but two: the Hizbul mujahideen and the Al-Badr. They were not surprised.
Security agencies had been reporting for some time that Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence had been pressuring terror groups in Jammu and Kashmir to work together. And there was evidence on the ground that Islamabad’s push to create synergies between terrorist groups may be working on the ground.
The October 7 meeting was the third case in two months in which the police eliminated a joint team of terrorists in the Kashmir Valley.
Also read: In Pakistan Army’s approach to terrorism in Kashmir, creating synergy is a new buzzword
Intelligence inputs reviewed by the Hindustan Times indicate that the Pakistan Army’s efforts to forge operational synergy between terrorist groups such as Hizbul, Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Taiba had continued since August 2019, when Islamabad introduced The Resistance Front (TRF), a new terrorist group with a Kashmiri face. That mask, however, did not work very well on the ground, a fact that appears to have persuaded the Pakistani military to trust Hizbul, which had a reputation as a terrorist group made up of local Kashmiris.
It was in this context that the Pakistani Army decided in May this year to modify its strategy and promote the Hizbul Mujahideen, leaving it to take responsibility for the terrorist attacks in the Kashmir valley.
Also read: In Pak’s terrorist plan to reactivate 2 routes, the Pathankot airbase attack coordinator is key
In addition, Pakistan has also told terrorist groups to pool resources, from manpower to explosives, an instruction that unusually translates into coordinated attacks on security facilities.
A senior police officer said the security establishment was aware of attempts to unite terrorist groups, but intended to counter Pakistan’s game plan with intelligence-driven operations. “It is not a coincidence that nearly 200 terrorists have been killed in Jammu and Kashmir,” the official said. This list includes 27 foreign terrorists, mostly Pakistani citizens linked to the Jaish or Lashkar.
In all, security forces have eliminated 33 terrorists in 17 encounters since September 1, including the one in Pulwama on Tuesday that led to the elimination of three terrorists from Lashkar-e-Taiba in a four-hour encounter.
According to the details available to the Hindustan Times, 13 belonged to Hizbul Mujahideen, 11 to Lashkar-e-Taiba, 4 were affiliated to Al-Badr while 3 were linked to Jaish-e-Mohammed. The remaining two cannot be classified under any terror set.
.
