Indian Army is known for its bravery in facing any dreadful enemy force on planet earth. A couple of defeats under the pusillanimous leader Jawaharlal Nehru did not deter the Indian Army. Today our Army’s morale is very high and effervescent too, despite our own enemies on the political turf, attacking the Army General as a ‘big-mouth’ and constantly trying to pull the Army’s moral down.
Now under the commandership of General Bipin Rawat, our Army is not only proving its might but also writing history in Military craft too. However, it is unfortunate that our present Army had to fight most of the time, insurgency and terrorism in our own land, instead of facing a neighbouring country’s Army’s advances across the borders in a conventional war like in the past. Notwithstanding, Army’s strategy is all that is vital in safeguarding the country.The manner in which our Army is coordinating with other forces and local police in Kashmir in trapping and bumping off terror outfits is indeed commendable.
Preparing hit list of terrorists, gathering intelligence on the movements of terrorist leaders with the help of local and other informers, and achieving the targets, are all going great guns.
Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind in Kashmir is the newly formed Al Qaida affiliate by Zakir Rashid Bhatt alias Zakir Musa, the former Chief of Hizbul Mujahideen. What made Hizbul Mujahideen blame Zakir Musa as a traitor now and accusing him of helping Indian forces to kill its own men is all interesting developments.
In July 2017, when Al Qaeda announced Zakir Musa as its Kashmir head, many were taken by surprise.
It made Al Qaeda‘s presence in Kashmir and attracted Global attention. Also, Musa had then openly renounced Kashmir Hurriyat leaders and called for the beheading of Hurriyat Leaders. Here the Kashmir’s local struggle become truly Globalised when Musa started drifting from the Kashmir struggle and started advocating Sharia and Sahadat. Due to this major shift, Indian Forces are eyeing Musa, as it is important to contain it for its International connections that have gone beyond Pakistan.
Before Musa was declared as Al Qaeda head of Kashmir in July, Musa had issued a number of threats against local Hurriyat Leaders and local Army informers. In quick succession to prove his point, in a sensational cold-blooded murder, a young lieutenant in Indian Army Umar Fayaz was abducted and killed by the terrorists. His return to home on leave to attend a family marriage was reportedly informed to the terrorists by locals. This incident was taken note by the Indian Army and helped them change the strategy in the coming days.
In a recent video that appeared on Social Media, Musa signals a ‘Second Hindu Exodus’ from Kashmir and also backs Rohingya Muslims fleeing from Myanmar. This is a clear shift of Musa from Kashmir cause to aiming Global Muslim issues.
However, this was followed by an another audio clip, countering the video statement of Musa, that is creating a sensation on Social Media now. In this audio clip, the voice was believed to be of HM operational commander Reyaz Naikoo. In the audio clip, Naikoo rejected the unknown masked gunmen, who blamed Musa of leaking information of fellow militants to the Indian forces. This proves the fact that security forces, local police and Army intelligence are working in tandem and succeeded in making in-roads inside the Terrorists set up’s. The popularity of Musa is indisputable anyway. In a number of video clippings, his fans were seen raising slogans in Musa’s support.
A Very interesting story is developing behind- A lot of betrayals, Secular sermons, etc have gone into these allegations and counter statements.
Amidst these, Reyaz Naikoo repeatedly appealing through his video messages saying that “It is a conspiracy to create confusion among the people and among the militants. There can be misunderstandings sometimes, but that doesn’t mean there are differences among us. We have no differences. We are united and our mission is one.”
However one can see the security forces shrewd strategy behind these developments. Above all what our Army has achieved was commendable. The new coordination of Army intelligence with the J & K local police in continuously tracking the top heads of Militant groups. The gunning down of Amarnath terror attack mastermind and Lashkar-e-Taiba commander Abu Ismail, an A++ category terrorist, was the biggest achievement of our Army.
One important video message of Musa which was released well before he was declared as Al Qaida Kashmir head (Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind ) in July 2017, may have hurt the Hizbul initially. This is to mean that Hizbul dubbing Musa as an informer to Indian forces in Kashmir is not without any basis.
In a video released somewhere in June from the outfit ‘Taliban-e-Kashmir’ headed by Musa then ( before he was chosen by Al Qaida in July 2017) Musa did admit openly that he provided specific information to security forces about half a dozen jihadis who were killed by the Army in the last seven days All the six militants killed in the two operations belonged to the Lashkar-e-Taiba and included dreaded names such as Junaid Mattoo and Nisar Ahmed. The HM group also admitted on tape that the killing of Hizbul commander Sabzar Ahmad Bhat by the security forces in May this year was the outcome of their tip-off to the forces.
Outcome
It is now a proven fact that the present dispensation of Hizbul Mujahideen in Kashmir is determined to fight for the political cause of Kashmir aligning with Hurriyat leadership, and the breakaway group now declared as Al Qaida of Kashmir headed by Musa is determined to fight for a Global cause of Islam and advocating Sharia and Sahadat on a Global platform.
It is interesting to see how Indian Army would make use of these two warring factions in Kashmir to accomplish its target of eliminating terror groups. Though Musa is figuring in the Army’s 5 terrorist hit list, Army may be planning to capture only Reyaz Naikoo for the moment and rest a while, leasing life to Musa as he may be helpful in getting more information on Hizbul’s movements in Kashmir, if Hizbul’s accusation of Musa as an informer to forces is true.
The goal of Musa would be to replace Hizbul with Al Qaida in Kashmir and hence there is every likely hood that Musa may target HM in Kashmir and on the other hand it is in the interest of HM and Hurriyat’s collective objective and Pakistan’s interest as well to see Hizbul thrive for more time in Kashmir.
One thing is sure. Indian Army and other forces in Kashmir are into a grand ‘Operation All Out’ show in the coming days, with a target date fixed on 31st December 2017, for the farewell to 2017 as well terrorism in Kashmir.