NEW DELHI: A new spectre haunts Kashmir. In a new low after the surgical strikes, a vengeful ISI and the Pakistan terror establishment plan to push convicted criminals into Jammu and Kashmir to carry out suicide attacks, says Indian intelligence. While 60-70 per cent of infiltrators belong to radical outfits like Jaish-e-Mohammad, Lashkar-e-Tayba and Hizbul Mujahideen, 30 per cent comprise mostly convicts sentenced to death or life for various heinous crimes. Pak Army trainers on “community service” brainwash them into believing that the Indian Army is perpetrating savage atrocities against Muslims in the Valley.
They are told jihadis who sacrifice their lives for the Kashmiri cause will reach ‘jannat’ (paradise), said an official of the Multi-Agency Centre (MAC) in Srinagar. MAC is the intelligence sharing nodal centre formed after the Mumbai 26/11 attacks. He said some of the convicts are even forced to have sex with HIV-infected women to rob them of all incentive to return. Before infiltration, jihadis are asked to shave their armpits and cut their nails since they should be clean upon arrival in heaven. Pak security forces threaten to kill anyone who tries to retreat. A maulana is present at launch pads to offer prayers for their journey to paradise.
The jihadis have been ordered to become “martyrs” within the first 48 hours of infiltration so that they do not get time to assimilate with locals. “The mentors of the fidayeen apparently do not want them to see the reality on the ground in Kashmir, the official said. All major terrorist attacks on the armed forces this year including in Pathankot in January and Uri in September were carried out within 48 hours of infiltration.
According to MAC’s latest estimates, 300 fidayeen are waiting across the LoC and the border to cross over. Security forces in the Valley have accordingly changed tactics. While the Army and the BSF have been directed to repulse all infiltration bids along the LoC and the border without mercy, forces engaged in the counter-insurgency grid of the Valley will eliminate an estimated 250 jehadis suspected to be hiding in the valley.