archive: Arrests reveal Pakistani plan to inject new life into JKLF
Arrests reveal Pakistani plan to inject new life into JKLF
Dwarika Prasad Sharma
The Sunday Times of India
July 4, 1999
Title: Arrests reveal Pakistani plan to inject new life into JKLF
Author: Dwarika Prasad Sharma
Publication: The Sunday Times of India
Date: July 4, 1999
Pakistan is trying to revitalise the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation
Front (JKLF), according to informed sources here.
7bis came to light four months ago when a militant called Rahi, a
"deputy commander" for the Poonch sector, was gunned down by the army
when he was attempting to cross over to Pakistan with a group of 13
boys whom he had motivated for training in subversive activities and
use of arms.
The boys, all from Mendhar tehsil of the district, however, managed to
escape and return to India. The police were able to identify and
round up some of them. However, some of them are yet to be traced.
The boys told the police how they had been recruited into the JKLF
cadre and motivated to cross the border in order to receive training
in arms and subversive activities by the Pakistanis. Thereafter, they
were to return India to recruit more cadres and actively promote the
"freedom struggle".
According to the police, a "reformatory approach" was applied and the
boys were "debriefed". Then, to "clinch" the process, their parents,
elders of their villages, the number-dars and chowkidars were told to
keep the boys in check and prevent from going astray. The boys were
then restored to their parents.
According to intelligence agencies, the militant groups which are
operating in the district, where violence has peaked once again, are
"desperately" looking for local recruits. According to police
records, 90 boys are missing from the district and are suspected to
have joined militant cadres. They are probably undergoing training in
Pakistan.
Apart from these "potentially hardcore" recruits, who have gone
underground, they believe that many more boys who have not gone
underground work as informers for the militant groups.
The police said the recent spurt in militant strikes in Poonch
district as well as elsewhere had been caused by "redeployment" of the
army along the border.
The strikes, they added, were aimed at eliminating local informers of
the security forces, politicians, particularly of the ruling party,
causing communal flare-ups, displacement of Hindu families from
Muslim-majority areas, apart from targeting the police and other
security forces.
Thursday night's massacre at Ari village in Mendhar tehsil, in which
nine members of two families had been killed by militants, for
instance, had caused a panic migration of Hindu families to Mendhar
town.
The main militant groups operating in Poonch are Hizbul Mujahideen,
Lashkar-e-Toiba and Hakatul Jehad-e-Islami. Their hardcore number is
put at 200, of whom 140 are foreigners.
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