Chapter 3 continues…

Hence, the terrorist groups today engaged in Kashmir, including Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, are foreign-led, and products of the anti- Soviet Afghan struggle. The Taliban, moreover, is an important agent fuelling the fire of Islamic militancy in Kashmir.
Terrorism when blended with jihad is a deadly mix and a major challenge to national security and integrity of India. Had there been no ‘9/11’ terrorist attack in US, and the consequent US-led conquest of Afghanistan, things would been much much worse for India today. As Masood Khalili, the Ambassador of Afghanistan in India, has observed in interview to a Delhi newspaper: “By end- 2001, entire Afghanistan would have been captured by Taliban.

By now, most of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan would have been run over by Al Qaeda. Afghanistan would have become a Khilafat (Caliphate), training and exporting 50,000 terrorists. The world would have had to recognize the Taliban, welcoming them to the OIC and the UN.” With Al Qaeda at India’s doorstep, what would have happened to J&K can easily be imagined. The Islamic terrorist epidemic has been contained for now, but the responsibility that devolves on India, to keep it that way, is heavy. It requires India to squarely face the implications of the almost lone battle that the US had faced is waging in Iraq and Afghanistan and now quit.

This requires for India’s civil society to be properly educated about the stakes involved and the nation’s patriotic options. While we may pursue friendship with at the foreign policy level, effective national security policy calls for constant search for the vulnerability points of Pakistan and Bangladesh for future use for ending India directed terrorism.

A brief background about the Northern Areas is useful at this stage, since these areas are going to be vital in future anti-terrorist operations of India. The Northern Areas of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir was annexed by Pakistan during 1947-48. Gilgit-Baltistan, as this region is referred to in local literature, came under Pakistani control, when Major Brown, the British Commander of Gilgit Scouts, an Indian Army unit, unauthorizedly declared accession to Pakistan on 4 November 1947

To be continued…