Author: Paranjoy Guha Thakurta
Publication: The Hindustan Times
Date: October 17, 2001
There are an estimated 1,300 foreign
mercenaries currently operating in Jammu and Kashmir and nearly three-fourths
of them belong to three organisations, the Hizbul Mujahideen, the Lashkar-e-Tayyeba
and the Jaish-e-Mohammed.
This has been stated in an internal
note prepared by a team of officials in the Union Ministry of Home Affairs.
The note adds that while the overwhelming
majority of these foreign mercenaries have come from Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir
(PoK), quite a few have come from Afghanistan and Bangladesh and some from
as far away as Sudan and Egypt.
While mercenaries have been active
in India's northernmost state since 1993, they have motivated local terrorists
to carry out more than 30 suicide ("fidayeen") attacks from July 1999.
The last one being the car-bomb attack that took place near the Assembly
building in Srinagar.
The Home Ministry note says the
largest number of foreign mercenaries (around 500 of them) is attached
to the Lashkar. Some 300 mercenaries are with the Hizbul, 200 with the
Jaish-e-Mohammed while the remaining are with smaller groups like the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen
(175), the Harkat-ul-Jehad-e-Islami (60), the Al Badr and the Tehrik-e-Jehad.
The team of officials has calculated
that out of a total of roughly 3,200 terrorists operating in Kashmir, more
than one-third of them are foreign mercenaries. It has been estimated that
around 1,850 terrorists are in the Kashmir Valley and the rest in the Jammu
region.
According to an official who requested
anonymity, contrary to expectations, there has been no decline in the activities
of foreign mercenaries since September 11. In fact, the Ministry apprehends
that there has been an increase in infiltration from training camps in
PoK.
Jaish supporters have become aggressive
and are indulging in "demonstrative" violence by targeting symbols of governance.
The official said that an average
of 10 killings are taking place in J&K every day. Official statistics
say between January 1998 and June 2001, nearly 3,000 civilians and over
1,300 security personnel have been killed in the State.