Fayaz Bukhari
Srinagar, Mar 3: Director General of Police, Ashok Prasad, said that militant spill over from Afghanistan is based on the assumptions but security forces on ground in Jammu and Kashmir are ready to deal with such a challenge.
In an exclusive interview to Excelsior, the DGP said that these are all apprehensions that what happened in 1989 when the Soviet troops pulled out of Afghanistan will be repeated after US led NATO forces pull out in 2014 from the country.
“It is an assessment that surplus militants who are fighting against US led NATO forces in Afghanistan will be sent to Kashmir after 2014 pull out of US troops but there is no specific input on this so far”, he said.
Prasad, however, said Pakistan may divert some Pakistan nationals fighting in Afghanistan after US troop pull-out in 2014 to Jammu and Kashmir to give itself a little bit of relief.
“It is not that Afghanis will come here but Pakistan may divert some of the Pakistanis to Jammu and Kashmir and send them with Lashkar-e-Toiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad, Harkat-ul-Jehad-e-Islami and Hizbul Mujahideen militant organizations”, said the DGP.
Prasad said it is unlikely that they will come in large numbers to Jammu and Kashmir but didn’t rule out infiltration of smaller groups. “But forces on the ground are ready to deal with them”, he added.
The DGP said that the LeT, JeM, HUJI and HM may get additional battle hardened foreigners with better equipment having greater fire power. “But it could be managed as they will be up against a force that is there on the ground for past 23 years fighting militancy”, he added.
Prasad said: “We have advantage of terrain and they are unlikely to get local support. The only thing is that they will create fear and delay return of normalcy, and sufferings of the people will increase”, he added.
The DGP said that spill over of militants into Jammu and Kashmir depends on how “we manage the borders”. “If we strengthen the fence further, there will be zero infiltration. It is not easy to enter Kashmir as they enter Pakistan from Afghanistan”, he added.
Prasad said that crossing the Line of Control (LoC) fence is very difficult and then there is Army on the borders which they have to counter with. “Kashmir is not Afghanistan, there they had advantage of terrain and local support and here we have advantage of terrain and local support”, he added.
When asked about any militant re-grouping taking place ahead of 2014 spill over, Prasad said that they are always trying to re-group and have not been successful due to pressure maintained by the security forces.
The DGP said that militants in Jammu and Kashmir are facing leadership crisis and are short of man power and weaponry. “Only 8-9 their top leaders are left in the State and they find it difficult to get public support”, he added.
Prasad said that there are 230 armed militants left in the State, out of them 20-30 per cent are active and 5 per cent is the leadership.
It may be mentioned here that militant groups in Pakistan including Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan recently threatened to re-launch militancy in Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistan Taliban had even warned that the next battle field will be in Kashmir.
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