Terror on the road: on the attack on defence forces in Jammu
India needs to rethink its Kashmir strategy and attitude to Pakistan
In another spectre of violence in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), five soldiers were killed and another critically injured in a terror attack on April 20 in the Rajouri-Poonch Sector, close to the Line of Control (LoC) in the Jammu division. Preliminary reports have suggested that terrorists — their numbers and affiliations are not known immediately — attacked, in inclement weather, an Army vehicle that was on a counter-insurgency patrol between Bhimber Gali-Poonch in the Rajouri sector. The attack also comes at a time when J&K is working diligently to host a G-20 Tourism Working Group meeting, in May. Separately, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari is likely to attend a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meeting in Goa next month, which has kindled the possibility of fresh India-Pakistan engagement. The attack raises the question about the management of patrols in sensitive locations in the region which has seen a spike in militant violence in the recent past, including a terror attack on a village on January 1 this year that left seven civilians dead. The fact that the Army vehicle was on an unaccompanied drive and remained unattended immediately after the attack is a matter of serious concern.
The images of the Army vehicle on fire and charred bodies have reignited memories of and visuals from the Pulwama attack in 2019. On February 14 that year, a convoy of buses with Central Reserve Police Force jawans was on the Jammu-Srinagar national highway way in Pulwama’s Lethpora area when a suicide bomber in an explosive-laden car managed to breach security. Forty personnel lost their lives in the terror attack that shocked the political class, the military establishment and the country. With Indian intelligence agencies pointing to the role of the Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM), India sent its fighter jets across the Line of Control to strike JeM training camps in Balakot, Pakistan, inflicting casualties and damaging the terror infrastructure there. India’s strident response to cross-border terror was noticed internationally, and became a topic of campaign during the Lok Sabha election soon after. However, terror emanating from Pakistan has failed to ebb, which is evident from the rising violence in J&K over the past three years, especially after the government decided to end the region’s semi-autonomous status on August 5, 2019. Claims on the subject made recently by the then J&K Governor Satya Pal Malik, in interviews, have brought to the fore fresh questions about the intent behind the political class while approaching the issue of terrorism in the country. Perhaps it is time India reviewed its strategy in Kashmir, including the current freeze on talks with Pakistan.