An estimated 250 militants operate in the Valley as of October 2010, according to the Director general of Police. Militancy has come down considerably since 2003. There used to be an estimated 3000 militants operating in Kashmir as of 2003,according to official
sources, including indigenous Kashmiri
militants, Pakistan sponsored foreign militants and Indian sponsored renegade militants .
Violence and human right violations by militants have been reported since 1989 and still continue.
Indigenous Kashmiri Militants: Officially estimated numbers: 1300.
1) JKLF: Secular outfit; Founded in late sixties; Pro- Independence group; Once funded by Pakistan ISI; later Pakistan cut off financing to the JKLF and in some instances provided intelligence to India against JKLF and has played a part in decimating it . The JKLF faction led by Yasin Malik announced unilateral ceasefire in 1994 and pursues political agenda under the All Parties Hurriyat (Freedom) Conference (APHC) umbrella; Amanulla Khan's JKLF faction's ceasefire in 1997.
2)Hizb: Pro-Pakistan outfit; Founded in 1989; favourite darling of the ISI. funded, armed and trained; Favours accession to Pakistan. Syed Salahuddin is the chief. Most of them are kashmiri militants; also has some foreign militants. Largely non-communal and condemned many communal killings.
Foreign Militants:
Official estimate: 2300 ; Dominated militancy since late 1990. Includes Afghan Mujahedins.
1) Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT): Backed by Pak; Mission: Establish an Islamic State ; Active since 1995;
Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM): Backed by Pakistan; Active since 1999;
Harkat-Ul-Mujahedin (HuM): Backed by Pakistan; Active since 1993;
Renegade Militants:
1)Estimated numbers: 1200 to 3000; Surrendered former militants in the employ of Indian security forces, as pro-india counter-insurgency forces. Example: Ikhwan-Ul-Muslimoon:
The historical timeline of militancy in Kashmir is given below.
1965:
Pakistan takes advantage of the discontent in the Kashmir Valley and sends in a few thousand armed Pakistani infiltrators across the cease-fire line in August and incidents of violence increase in Kashmir Valley; Code-named "Operation Gibraltar", one can see evidence of official Pakistani policy at work here; A full Indo-Pakistani war breaks out which ends in a ceasefire on 23 September. Pakistan supported guerrilla groups in Kashmir increase their activities after the ceasefire. Kashmiri nationalists Amanullah Khan and Maqbool Butt form another Plebiscite Front with an armed wing called the Jammu and Kashmir National Liberation Front(NLF) in Azad Kashmir, with the objective of freeing Kashmir from Indian occupation; Butt crosses into the Valley in June 1966 and engages in clashes with the Indian army; He is arrested and sentenced to death in 1968 but escapes to Azad Kashmir with help from the local people.
Balraj Puri, Kashmir: Towards Insurgency, New Delhi 1993, p.31-2
Alastair Lamb, Kashmir A Disputed Legacy 1846-1990, Roxford 1991, pp.255-271
Victoria Schofield, Kashmir in Conflict, New York 2000, pp.114-6.
1971: An Indian Airlines plane, 'Ganga', en route from Srinagar to New Delhi, is hijacked in January and diverted to Lahore and later blown up after allowing passengers to leave; Maqbool Butt claims responsibility.
1976: Maqbool Butt is arrested on his return to the Valley; Amanullah Khan moves to England and NLF becomes Jammu and Kashmir liberation Front(JKLF).
1979: The USSR invades Afghanistan. The US and Pakistan
are involved in training, recruiting, arming, and unleashing the Mujahedin on
Afghanistan. The mujahedin so recruited would take on their own agenda of
establishing Islamic rule in Kashmir from the late 1980's.
1987: Farooq Abdullah wins the elections. The Muslim United Front (MUF) accuses
that the elections have been rigged. The insurgency in the valley increases
in momentum from this point on, given the consistent failure of democracy and limited
employment opportunities. The MUF candidate Mohammad Yousuf Shah is not only cheated in the rigged elections, but also imprisoned and he would later become Syed Salahuddin, chief of militant outfit Hizb-ul-Mujahedin; His election aides called the HAJY group -Abdul Hamid Shaikh, Ashfaq Majid Wani, Javed Ahmed Mir and Mohammed Yasin Malik- would join the JKLF.
Balraj Puri, Kashmir: Towards Insurgency, New Delhi 1993, p.52
Amanullah Khan takes refuge in Pakistan, after being deported from England and begins to direct operations across the LoC; Young disaffected Kashmiris in the Valley such as the HAJY group are recruited by JKLF.
1989: The insurgency in the Valley gains momentum, given the consistent failure of democracy and limited employment opportunities; Militancy increases with bomb blasts; On 8 December, Rubaiya Sayeed, daughter of the Home Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed is kidnapped by the JKLF; She is released safely on 13 December in exchange for the release of five JKLF leaders.
Kashmiri Pandits Jia Lal Taploo and Neel Kanth Ganjoo are killed by militants, the latter for sentencing Maqbool Butt to death in 1984.
End of Soviet occupation of Afghanistan releases a great deal of militant
energy and weapons to Kashmir. Pakistan provides arms and training to both
indigenous and foreign militants in Kashmir, thus adding fuel to the
smouldering fire of discontent in the valley.
On 13 February, Lassa Kaul, director of Srinagar Doordarshan, is killed by the
militants for implementing pro-indian media policy. In the end of February, an estimated 400,000 kashmiris take to the
streets of Srinagar, demanding a plebiscite.
On March 1, an estimated one million take to the streets and more than forty people
are killed in police firing. Massive protest marches by unarmed civilians continue in
Srinagar.
Though the JKLF tries to explain that the killings of Pandits were not communal, the murders cause a scare among the minority Hindu community. The rise of new militant groups, some warnings in anonymous posters and some unexplained killings of innocent members of the community contribute to an atmosphere of insecurity for the Kashmiri Pandits; Joint reconciliation efforts by members from both Muslim and Pandit communities are actively discouraged by Jagmohan. Most of the estimated 162,500 Hindus in the Valley, including the entire Kashmiri Pandit community, flee the Valley in March. There have been charges that this exodus was encouraged by Jagmohan, who has a reputation for being anti-Muslim, to enable India to have a "free hand" in dealing with the Muslims in the Valley. A thorough, independent enquiry alone can show if this exodus was entirely unavoidable.
1990-2001: An officially estimated 10,000 desperate Kashmiri
youth cross-over to Pakistan for training and procurement of arms.
The indigenous militant groups include the pro-independence JKLF and the pro-Pakistan Hizb-ul-Mujahedin (Hizb); The Hizb which is backed by Pakistan, increases its strength dramatically; ISI (Inter Services Intelligence: Pakistan's secret service) favours the Hizb over the secular JKLF and cuts off financing to the JKLF and in some instances provides intelligence to India against JKLF; In April 1991, kashmiris hold anti-Pakistan demonstrations in Srinagar following killing of a JKLF area commander by the Hizb; In 1992, Pakistan forces arrest 500 JKLF marchers led by Amanulla Khan in POK to prevent bid to cross the border; India also uses intelligence from captured militants and consequently JKLF militancy declines; The JKLF faction led by Yasin Malik announces unilateral ceasefire in 1994 and pursues political agenda under the APHC (All Parties Hurriyat[Freedom] Conference) umbrella, followed by Amanulla Khan's JKLF faction's ceasefire in 1997; Since 1995, foreign militant outfits with Islamic agenda such as Lashkar-e-Toiba(LeT) and Harkat-ul-Mujahedin have dominated the militancy in Kashmir, besides the indigenous Hizb, all of them under the umbrella United Jehadi Council(UJC); Other indigenous and foreign militant organizations proliferate.
- Balraj Puri, Kashmir: Towards Insurgency, New Delhi 1993, p.63.
- Alexander Evans, As bad as it gets: The Kashmir Insurgency, April 2000, p.3
Renegade militants supported by the Indian security forces are used for extrajudicial
executions of militants (besides human right activists, journalists and other civilians) and later conveniently dismissed as "intergroup rivalries". In 1997, the Director General of Police Gurbachan Jagat acknowledges that continued services of the renegades have become counter-productive in view of their excesses; an estimated 5000 renegades are reportedly 'rehabilitated' as Special Police Officers (SPO) in the State police and many others are absorbed in the security forces; The renegades remain the most dreaded group and continue to engage in excesses; an estimated 3000 renegades are believed to operate in J&K.
Though militancy is mainly concentrated in the Valley and is largely non-communal, some militant outfits operate in the Jammu region also and wage a communal campaign; The most serious incident of a communal nature namely the murder of sixteen male Hindus in Kishtwar in August 1993 is condemned by the JKLF and the Hizb. In the Jammu region, Muslims have been targeted more than Hindus and Sikhs; According to official reports, 307 Hindus and 377 Muslims have been killed in the Doda and Rajouri districts as of 1998; Hindu fundamentalism by the local armed Village Defence Committee (VDC) backed by the Army and terrorism by Muslim insurgents in defense of the Muslim community, have fed each other. Some militant groups with Islamic agenda have attacked women sporadically for not wearing the veil, which has been condemned by the indigenous militants. The APHC has recently called for foreign militants to leave Kashmir , since they are tarnishing the image of their freedom struggle.
Praveen Swami, The Kargil War, New Delhi 1999, pp.71-2.
