Softening the targets

The dastardly massacres at Doda and Poonch are a reminder that while India has won the critical battle in Kargil, the wider war rages on....

The dastardly massacres at Doda and Poonch are a reminder that while India has won the critical battle in Kargil, the wider war rages on. In fact, the authorities have for some time been voicing the fear that after the drubbing in Kargil, militants are bound to step up attacks on soft targets in Jammu and Kashmir.

Intelligence reports to this effect have already been borne out by four bloody massacres in three weeks. Certainly, with large-scale de-induction of Army as well as Rashtriya Rifles troops from the Valley for the Kargil operation, it has become that much easier for Pakistan-backed terrorists to deflect attention with midnight strikes.

And with a long-drawn-out election campaign ready to roll, with the Amarnath Yatra which begins this week posing its own security challenges, the government8217;s ability to redeploy the forces at its command will become much more restricted. This will present hit-and-run mercenaries with that many more options. Clearly, there is no option but to shore upcounter-militancy and intelligence-gathering operations if the Poonch massacres are not to become a weekly ritual.

However, post-Kargil, India must also reassess Pakistan8217;s decade-long proxy war in Jammu and Kashmir. After Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif called for the resumption of bilateral talks, New Delhi laid down two conditions: that the Kargil heights be vacated and that his nation stop engaging in cross-border terrorism. The first may be fulfilled soon enough, but getting the second condition addressed will require wit and persistence.

And yet, Indian diplomacy must relentlessly pursue the terrorism-Pakistan link, especially at a time when Islamabad stands rather isolated internationally and when Western powers seem increasingly apprehensive about extremist elements in that country. A world suddenly alarmed about flashpoints in South Asia must recognise that an intensive intrusion across the Line of Control into Kargil and a gradual but steady stream of mercenaries into the Valley pose equaldangers to regional peace.

And if any further proof were required of Pakistan8217;s duplicity, its hawkish information minister Mushahid Hussain brazenly provided it in an interview to an Indian newspaper when he stated that while the so-called mujahideen have retreated from Kargil, they have simply relocated elsewhere.

8220;Mujahideen do not wither away, they can surface tomorrow in Baramulla or Doda or Srinagar,8221; he told an Indian newspaper. Yes, they did resurface in Doda just hours before Hussain shared his wisdom! And what of his beleaguered prime minister? In his address to the nation, Sharif piously demanded: 8220;For how long will we snatch food from our people and buy guns?8221; It is a question he must ask of his ISI, which is training militants to use those guns against hapless villagers in Doda and Poonch.

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In the meanwhile, even as Indian security forces use what is left of the summer to sanitise Dras, Kargil and Batalik, they must not lose sight of the rest of the volatile border to see that the ISIdoes not take advantage of the weather and a stretched-out force to rush into the Valley more men and arms.