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Volume 2, No. 1 - June 2002

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Terrorism Update
By Subodh Atal
Kashmir Herald Staff Writer

While terrorist activities sponsored by Pakistan in Jammu and Kashmir continued during the month of May, one incident overshadowed all others. On May 14th, a small group of Pakistani terrorists boarded a bus and killed seven passengers when they got off near an army camp in Kaluchak near Jammu. They then entered the army camp and killed about thirty people, including soldiers and their family members. Little children and their mothers were not spared in this ghastly incident.

The attack prompted India to renew warnings about attacking Pakistan’s terrorist bases. The imminent hostilities that could lead up to a nuclear exchange finally spurred western nations to acknowledge Pakistan’s sponsorship of terror in Jammu and Kashmir. US President Bush warned Gen. Musharraf publicly to pull back the terrorists, and the international pressure on the slippery General seemed to have some effect. Pakistani officials have given some sort of order for the terrorists to lay low. This is very likely a temporary phase. Musharraf is likely going to hold his fire for a few weeks until the monsoon season starts in July, knowing that Indian offensive operations will become difficult at that time. Thus US advice to India to deescalate will turn out to be counter-productive, encouraging Pakistan to yet again resume full and overt support for terrorism.

Another prominent terrorist incident was the killing of Hurriyat leader Abdul Ghani Lone in a daring attack at a public meeting in Srinagar, just a few days after the Kaluchak attack. Lone had talked about reconciling with the Indian government and even participating in the state assembly elections set for September. Success of the state elections is anathema to Pakistan and its proxies, and Lone had directly spurned ISI chief Ehsanul Haq in a recent conference in Dubai, when the latter tried to get a commitment from Lone to scuttle the elections. For this he paid with his life, courtesy of some of the terrorists sent by the ISI to Kashmir.

There were numerous other daily incidents of terrorism, with the state again overshadowing every other region in the world, including the Mid-East, in this dubious category. In one other attack in late May, a police camp was attacked by two Pakistani terrorists. Three policemen were killed before the two terrorists were cornered and eliminated. Deadly attacks against civilians continued, with several reports of beheadings of pro-Indian residents of the state. Terrorists also indulged in numerous grenade attacks on civilian targets, killing many civilians apart from policemen and soldiers. In late May, a CRPF convoy was attacked and several paramilitary officers were injured in the attack.


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