JK News Today Special Report
Union Home Minister Amit Shah is arriving in J&K on a three-day visit beginning April 6 and the most of the analysts are linking it to the ongoing operation against Pakistani terrorists who infiltrated from across the border on March 23 , overlooking a critical angle . This is his first visit to the Union Territory after the Assembly elections and the subsequent installation of the elected government led by Omar Abdullah.
His scheduled visit indeed is coming against the backdrop of fresh bid by Pakistan to give an uptick to terrorism but the security review could not be the only purpose. He knows the security landscape of Jammu and Kashmir as he has presided over marathon briefing sessions in which he exhorted the security forces and intelligence agencies to go in for all out operations in pursuance of zero-tolerance of terrorism . There is deeper purpose in the visit.
Alongside , having a better understanding of the dynamics of the security landscape, of J&K , he , it is expected , will study the political narration in the overall welfare of the place and people and how that is playing its role in security of the territory . Pakistan’s part in engineering and executing acts of terror in J&K is known. It is using all the land to aerial and cyber routes to further its agenda vis-à-vis .
Pakistan ,cornered on its own soil by the serial acts of violence and high rise insurgencies in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa , is seeking to deflect attention from its internal troubles , despite its hard and soft state narratives . It is not the hard state that can resolve its problems . It is greatly aware that defeat is writ large on its hard state attitude that its army chief Gen. Asim Munir has propounded because kinetic actions have failed to deliver any substantial success to it in curbing insurgencies .Pakistan is biggest enemy of itself. It is crushing the civilians and eludes itself into the self-belief that it is fighting terrorism. This strategy is going to backfire . Pakistani intelligentsia and others have warned the establishment of the consequences but then Pakistan army refuses to listen to sane voices .
It has embarked on two strategies – using heavy force against the insurgents in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa , and simultaneously pushing terrorists and arms and ammunition to the Indian side of Jammu and Kashmir to keep the pot boiling . The manner in which it is using bullets against the civilian protestors and launched witch-hunt for the Baloch people who resist the imposition of idea of Pakistan on them , the problem has started drawing international attention . Pakistan wants to divert that by reworking on the resurgence of militancy in J&K , thriving on its age-old though failed strategy of putting “ Kashmir dispute” at the international fora .
The Home Minister would be having feedback from the ground on this situation , as he would not let the gains on security front to be frayed . Shah, as Home Minister , is the leader of the internal security of the country . Pakistan has been trying to impact the internal security of this country through its violent machinations .
At the same time , he will try to gauge whether the new political arrangement that has come in place after the elections , wherein BJP is the main opposition party, and National Conference , the ruling party , has consolidated the narrative of the national unity and integrity . He has heard a lot about the abrogation of Article 370 within the Assembly and outside of it after the elections , and the counter that BJP offered , but he would like to see hat how much of it is rhetoric or genuine .
Pakistan’s machinations can be defeated only when there is unity of thought and action in Jammu and Kashmir. I think that’s what this visit of Home Minister Amit Shah is all about.
Political narratives and actions in J&K are crucial for it achieving greater heights and looking for realization of its aspirations , including the UT becoming the state again.
( Binoo Joshi is editor of JK News Today, formerly J&K Correspondent for BBC and IANS)
