The 'Taliban' Infiltration

"The heavily-forested Kupwara is not the sprawling urban Mumbai.Encounters within forests have nothing in common with encounters with terroristsentrenched inside urban buildings and going on a shooting spree in crowdedpublic places in a big city such as Mumbai. But there are disconcertingsimilarities between what happened in Mumbai between November 26 and 29, 2008,and between what has happened during the last five days in the Kupwara area--simultaneous, well-orchestrated attacks on multiple targets, whether static ormoving army patrols, a skilful use of hand-held weapons and gadgets  suchas GPS systems, suicidal and not suicide terrorism, strike, stay and fighttactics instead of the hit and vanish tactics and an ability to keep theencounters with the security forces going  for a long time in order to makean impact on the local population and the international community throughdramatic media reports. "

-- Extract from my article dated March 25, 2009, FromMumbai To Kupwara 

While the Government of  Dr Manmohan Singh has maintained its usualsilence on what has been going on in Northern Jammu & Kashmir (Kupwara, Uriand Baramulla areas), there have been worrisome reports in the media about theinfiltration of one more group of 30 well-trained terrorists-cum-insurgents fromthe Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (POK) into J&K. This group, which has beendescribed as a "Taliban group" to distinguish it from the earlierinfiltrators who belonged to the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET), is well-trained and has shown a capability to keep our security forces engaged in conventional stylebattles. 

If the media reports  of the way the new infiltrators are fighting areto be believed, what we are seeing is  reminiscent of  theinfiltration of a re-trained and better-trained Neo Taliban of Mulla MohammadOmar into Afghanistan in 2003. The re-trained Neo Taliban showed a remarkablecapability for mixing conventional style stand and fight battles and suicide orsuicidal terrorism. The US-led NATO forces in Afghanistan are still struggling to grapple with the re-trained Neo Taliban infiltrators from their sanctuariesin Pakistan.

The use of the word Taliban in describing the new batch of infiltrators intoNorthern J&K can be confusing. The Pakistani media refer to the anti-Indiaterrorist organisations, which consist largely of Punjabis and Punjabi-speakingKashmiris (Mirpuris) from  Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (POK), as the PunjabiTaliban and to the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which consists largely ofPashtuns, as the Pashtun Taliban. The TTP consists largely of the Mehsud andWazir sub-tribes of the Pashtuns. Next to the Punjabis, who constitute about 75per cent of the  Pakistan Army, the Pashtuns constitute the second largestnumber in the Army-- about 20 per cent. They are recruited from both theNorth-West Frontier Province (NWFP) and the Federally-Administered Tribal Areas(FATA)-- with the Mehsuds and the Wazirs constituting the largest single groupof Pashtun tribals recruited into the Army from the FATA.

When the Pakistan Army tried to annex J&K after Pakistan  becameindependent in 1947, it first sent into J&K Mehsud and  Wazir tribalswho projected themselves as local Kashmiris. Initially, the Pakistan Armytotally denied any responsibility for their depredations, but ultimately itaccepted that the tribal infiltrators were from the army. These infiltratorsmanaged to occupy some parts of J&K which were constituted into the POK. Asa reward for their services, many of these Mehsuds and Wazirs were allowed tosettle down in the POK after their retirement from the Army

When Ayub Khan wanted to occupy J&K in 1965, he again sent the Mehsudsand the Wazirs into J&K and tried to project them as indigenous Kashmiris.If Lal Bahadur Shastri, the then Indian Prime Minister, had not retaliated byordering the Indian Army to enter the Lahore area thereby creating panic in thePakistani army, these tribals from the Pakistani Army posing as indigenousKashmiris would have probably occupied Jammu and even Srinagar. After the warwas over, Ayub Khan had these Mehsuds and Wazirs from the Pakistan Armyre-settled in POK. During the military confrontation  between India andPakistan after the foiled terrorist attack on the Indian Parliament on December13, 2001, Pervez Musharraf used to say that there were 150,000 ex-service-menre-settled in the POK, who would put up a fierce resistance to any forays by theIndian Army into the POK. These ex-servicemen largely consist of Punjabis,Mehsuds and Wazirs.

Against this background,  the new group of infiltrators into J&Kcould be either members of the so-called Punjabi Taliban or members from thefamilies of Mehsud and Wazir re-settlers in the POK who are being referred to bythe locals as the Taliban, meaning the Pashtun Taliban. In the past--in 1947-48 and in 1965-- the infiltration of the tribals was a prelude  to a regularinvasion by the Pakistan Army. This time, the objective of the infiltration seems to be to strengthen the claims of some non-governmental andgovernmental experts close to the administration of President Barack Obama, whohave been saying that a solution to the so-called Kashmir problem should be thestarting point of any effective fight against terrorism emanating from thePakistani territory by the Pakistan Army.

The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. ofIndia, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies,Chennai.