Re: Internal Security Watch

[chetak]

J&K militants use app to evade Army snooping

June 6, 2016

A new app, “Calculator”, found on the smartphones of terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir, helps them remain in touch with their handlers in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) without being detected by the Army’s technical surveillance.

With the number of militants infiltrating from PoK showing a steep rise this year, the Army found that terrorists carried smartphones with no messages stored in the device.

The Army’s signal unit, which relies mainly on technical intercepts like usage of wireless and mobile phones by infiltrating terror groups to track them, is trying hard, along with National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO) and other agencies, to crack this mechanism used by the terrorists.

The technology was first used by a U.S.-based company during Hurricane Katrina so that the affected residents could remain in touch with each other.

During interrogation of some of the terrorists of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the agencies came to know that the terror outfit had modified it and created the application “Calculator”, which can be downloaded on smartphones attached to the off-air network created specifically for them.

The technology is based on the concept of ‘cognitive digital radio’ that enables users to turn their smartphones into peer-to-peer, off-grid communication tools.

The network generates its own signal through proprietary ad hoc networking protocols and automatically coordinates with other units within range which enables users to send and get text messages, share their GPS locations on offline maps regardless of access to WiFi or cellular service

.

[wig]

antics of political understatement by K N Pandita

We all know what an ‘overstatement’ means. But good examples of political ‘understatement’ are few and far between. Defining the latter is rather arduous if not elusive.
Mehbooba Mufti’s statement on the militant attack on BSF convoy in Bejbehara resulting in the killing of three jawans and wounding seven others is a classical example of political understatement.
She indirectly and subtly linked it to the façade of return of Pandit displaced persons and carefully avoided any reference to the impending elections to the vacant assembly seat of Bijbehara for which she has filled her nomination papers.
The new narrative is about ‘disrupting the Amarnath yatra’, another twist to understatement syndrome.
CM says in all pristine innocence that she does not understand why the militants and their handlers across the border are indulging in violence in Kashmir and what they want out of it.
I am reminded of an Urdu verse: is sadgi peh kaun na marjaega asad/larhte hain aur hath main talwar bhi nahin
Indeed, a fine example of understatement this is. One could ask at least she knows why she and her late father were applying “balm to the wounds of the militants”. Who had inflicted wounds on them and why she wanted to apply balm to what purpose?
She says she does not understand why Pakistan is playing this dirty game in Kashmir. I hope she has not forgotten what her late father said when his party won the assembly elections. He had thanked Pakistan for allowing Kashmiris to elect a government. And still Mehbooba ji does not know what interest Pakistan has in foisting armed conflict on Kashmir. Who will not appreciate her innocence?
Armed militants, obviously hiding in some nearby hideout and monitoring the movement of BSF truck carrying the personnel to the BSF Headquarter, seized the strategic opportunity and attacked the moving convoy that resulted in the killings. After committing the crime they disappeared in thin air.
The Chief Minister, in her innocence and honesty, has not a word for those providing logistics and hideouts to the militants in and around Bijbehara, her hometown and traditional constituency. Mind you! it is her constituency where elections are impending. That explains the nature of political understatement.
The Chief Minister looks at things from a specific prism. She is at a loss why Pakistan and its sponsored militants have been indulging in disrupting law and order in the State. This feigned childlike simplicity is to show that the Chief Minister is not in know of the reasons of rise of militancy and fundamentalism in Kashmir during past twenty-seven years.
That is why she doles out very pious pontification to Pakistan to explain to her what Pakistan gets out of it. Even if she knows, she very politely and mildly, like a true statesman, invokes logic and common sense in the affairs of bilateral relations with neighbours and the quality of good neighborliness. She asks the militants to think over on what they are doing especially after her late father and even she herself had applied the “marham” on their wounds.
As a chief minister she is pained to say that lives of fifty to sixty thousand people including security forces and police have been lost during the proxy war. It is a great humanitarian approach. However, the culture of political understatement prevents her from asking the source of these fatalities. To leave the people guessing she only sticks to her inability to understand what they want.
Madam Chief Minister, to put it simply, they (militants and Pakis) want to snatch from you the throne on which you are sitting and the crown you are wearing. You want to save these symbols of royalty through softened and chastened understatements. Those are not the ways of monarchical icons.
But they enjoy your softened understatement, as do we, the ordinary mortals, without need for in-depth analysis just because you are incapable of doing any harm to them even if you are disposed to strain your conscience.
In her feigned innocence the CM pretends not to know why and how militancy emerged in the State that led to the destruction of so many lives. In feigned innocence she finds the ploy to cover the question of the origin of the gun in Kashmir.
Like the Chief Minister, the common man in the valley is also at a loss to understand the purpose of the militants and their handlers in indulging in killing, and disruption of life in Kashmir.
However, the notable thing is that the chief minister does not feel it at all important to ask the peace-loving people of the state to denounce such atrocious activities of the militants, refuse logistics and safe havens and even guidance to them. Making any appeal like that would, in all probability, polarize the constituency on which she and her party depend.
A calculated understatement on the killing of three BSF personnel and wounding seven others merits the environs of local politics, which is endorsed by the powers in New Delhi.
By not retaliating to the militant attack, the BSF has averted what is called Handwara like situation. This is perfectly right for a government that must keep its vote constituency in tact especially when the election is round the corner for a crucial vacant seat. Cowardice is an art after all.
As regards the issue of rehabilitation of displaced Pandits back in Kashmir valley, the subject touched upon by the CM a couple of times in recent days, the commitment made in the Agreement of Alliance could not be implemented by either party as was clear from what happened after late Mufti and PM had made an announcement. This raises the question whether the new formula about which CM is speaking is palatable to the Hurriyatis and separatists with whom her government proposes to enter into consultation according to the recent statement of the spokesman of the government.
Therefore it may be premature to comment on the possible response of the majority community of the valley which has assigned to itself the final verdict on the return of the minority to their native land.
If it is only the will of the majority to decide whether a minority is allowed space and right to exist wherever it likes, and not the constitution of the country or the State, or the norms of democratic dispensation and international law, then India as a home o hundreds of millions of minority community members is standing on the edge of a precipice that leads to chaos and destruction.
BJP – led government in the centre and in coalition in the State should hang its head in shame for succumbing to the diktat of a fanatical and rabidly communal majority of an 80×35 miles strip in the north of the country. Who is Mufti Mehbooba or any other political figure to decide taking the ten thousand years old indigenous citizens of Kashmir back in pigeonholes and dump them there as prisoners of the majority community. If she has vision and personality, she must announce a new city for the entire displaced community, come what may. Pandits are not the people in whose eyes dust can be thrown. Modi in the centre must come out of his frozen turbulence and assert as the arbiter of country’s destiny. He has a massive mandate of the Indian nation and trivializing it means trivializing the Indian nation.

http://www.dailyexcelsior.com/antics-of ... statement/

[Pranay]

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-36525694

Kashmir: Outrage over settlements for displaced Hindus

Authorities in Indian-administered Kashmir have put separatist leaders under house arrest to prevent them from holding a silent march on Wednesday in protest at a government decision to resettle displaced Kashmiri Hindus in exclusive colonies. The BBC's Geeta Pandey reports on the controversy from Srinagar, the Muslim majority state's summer capital.

"One evening, the terrorists came to our house and surrounded it. They took away my uncle Bharat Bhushan Kaul saying they wanted to ask him some questions. They threatened to shoot anyone who intervened. Everyone was very afraid," she says.
At dawn, Kaul's body was found hanging from a tree outside their home. The 28-year-old government employee had just been engaged and was to get married a month later.

In the late 1980s, an armed rebellion broke out in the Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley, seeking independence from India. The militants often targeted the minority Hindus and attacks and threats saw most of the 350,000 Pandits, as they are also known, fleeing for safety to the Jammu region and elsewhere in India. Today, there are only 2,764 Hindus left there.
"My family was planning to go to Jammu as the situation in the valley had deteriorated. They thought they'd go for a few months and return once the situation improved. But after my uncle was killed, they performed his last rites, loaded their belongings onto a truck and left," Ms Kaul says.
"The situation here kept worsening and we could not return. We were afraid that if we came back, we would meet the same fate as my uncle."

Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, chief cleric at Jamia mosque, says exclusive Hindu settlements will create a deep wedge in Kashmiri society
It took her 26 years to visit the valley again - I met Ms Kaul and her mother Kiran Kaul last week while they were visiting their former neighbours in their village in Budgam district, not far from Srinagar.
Although they are on a short visit, hopes have been rekindled that they can return permanently to the valley.
The state government - a coalition of India's governing Bharatiya Janata Party and the regional People's Democratic Party - has vowed to bring the Pandits back.

The authorities said they would set up secure enclaves for returning migrants where they can live safely, but the plan has hit a roadblock, with many accusing the government of trying to create "Israeli-type settlements in Palestine".
Kashmiri pandit Makhan Lal with Muslim friendsImage copyrightABID BHAT

Shama, a Kashmiri Pandit, said during the years of militancy she was helped by her Muslim neighbours, but accused the government of being apathetic to the problems of Hindus living in the valley
Following criticism, the government did an about-turn - Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti insisted that she was only talking about providing the Pandits with transit lodging until they built their own homes, but not many in the valley are willing to take her word for it.

And in what could prove a big headache for the authorities, rival Kashmiri separatist leaders Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Yasin Malik and Syed Ali Shah Geelani have, in a rare show of unity, joined hands to oppose the plan.
"We want the Pandits to come back, every Kashmiri Muslim agrees on that. We believe that it's a humanitarian issue. The Pandits have every right to return and the government should give them handsome compensation to help them settle," Mirwaiz Farooq told the BBC.

Most Hindus fled the valley after the outbreak of militancy, leaving their homes and orchards
"But we are opposed to the exclusive settlements because that will create a deep wedge in the Kashmiri society. Keeping the Pandits segregated in secluded areas with security barricades will create walls of hatred, this is not the right approach."
At the Friday prayers at Srinagar's Jamia Mosque, he tells his supporters about the government plan and explains why they need to be opposed. His followers nod in agreement.
Surprisingly, also in agreement with Mirwaiz Farooq are many of the Pandits who chose to remain in the valley during the quarter century while militancy raged or who returned in the last few years.

'We don't want to live in ghettos," says Kashmiri Pandit leader Sanjay Tickoo
Lalita Dhar, 65-year-old retired schoolteacher who relocated to Jammu in 1989 after threats from Muslim militants, has been living for the past 18 months in the Sheikhpora camp set up by the government for the returning Hindu migrants.
In a two-bedroom apartment that she and her daughter share with another family, Mrs Dhar says she feels like she has been "caged".
"Before we left, we lived in Srinagar and we had excellent relations with our Muslim neighbours. They helped us, protected us against the militants. I want to go back and live there but we had to sell the family house to survive. I don't like it in the camp here. I feel like a caged bird," she says.

Over the past few years, the authorities have set up camps like the one in Sheikhpora (above) for the returning Hindu migrants
"People from all religions and communities should live together, we should be able to mingle freely. Then we can fly like free birds."
Sanjay Tickoo, president of the Kashmiri Pandit Sangharsh Samiti, who decided to stay on, get married and raise two children in the volatile valley despite death threats from militants, says 95% of Hindus who migrated have sold their homes and land, so obviously they can't return to their previous homes.
Also, he says there is little connection between the Pandits and the present generation of Muslim youths, which means the returning Hindus will not find the going easy.
In the past few years, the insurgency has abated, Kashmir is largely bustling, and the summer months have seen tens of thousands of happy Indian tourists descending on the picturesque valley, but, as Mr Tickoo says, things can go wrong in a moment.
Sandip Kaul, who works in a private firm, lives in taniporaImage copyrightABID BHAT

"In 2008, there were days of protests over a government decision to allot some land to the Amarnath Hindu shrine board. As a Hindu then, I felt very unsafe here. My Muslim neighbours looked at me in a way which made me feel like I was back in the 1990s when the militancy was at its peak."
Mr Tickoo says the people who migrated will not be able to deal with the pressures of life in the valley and are likely to run away again at the first sight of trouble.
"The authorities will have to support them, they will not be able to live scattered in the valley so they will need to be given space," he says, but adds that "we don't want to live in ghettos".
"I think the answer is in creating smart cities where 50% of homes should be reserved for the Pandits, the remaining can house Muslims, Sikhs or anyone else who chooses to stay there. Then we will be able to rebuild a truly composite society here."

What is the opinion of forum members (Kashmiris in particular) on this concept of creating "return transit camps" for returning Kashmiris (I will not confine myself to just Kashmiri Pandits but also include Kashmiris of all religions who had to flee Kashmir).

Also, there is an approximate # of about 350,000 to 400,000 Kashmiri Pandits who were displaced - Are there similar #'s established of Kashmiri Muslims & Kashmiri Sikhs & Buddhists who were similarly affected by the "militancy" and had to flee Kashmir?

[Supratik]

This sudden love for KPs is bs. They have two objectives in opposing. One, if they can they are hoping it will make the plan impossible to implement and the Hindus won't return. Or second, if they can't stop it they would like to keep watch on what is happening in this KP settlements. The PDP, NC and even probably the INC are in collusion as they cannot openly oppose it. But the motivated leaks suggest collusion. KP settlements will make it easier to defend it. The KPs opposing are either delusional or it is a fabrication to show that they are not interested to return. If BJP wants to be seen as a serious player, it should stake its govt on this issue. Either the PDP moves on this issue and sainik colonies or the coalition is terminated.

[Aditya_V]

The KP who live in isolated houses have to parrot lines or will have to face the consequences

[Gagan]

There is a rumour that both the now late CM and his daughter are closet Hindus ...

[Chandragupta]

There is a rumour that both the now late CM and his daughter are closet Hindus ...

About effing time. We already have thousands of Hindus who are closet Islamochristists.

[Gagan]

This reinforces the belief...

[RoyG]

Bullsh*t. Taqiyya onlee.

[Supratik]

Hizb has threatened to attack KP settlements. Tells you about the serious challenges and why kP settlements need to be clustered to defend them.

[manjgu]

the idea is a non starter..u may defend the settlement..but they will have to to market, go out for work... etc etc. for this to end India will have to bite the bullet and capture territory in POK and then a final settlement.

[SanjayC]

^^^ This logic needs to be extended further. If Hindus have to survive long-term, Bangladesh and Pakistan need to be captured again and full transfer of population done -- the unfinished agenda of partition. Short of a civil war inside India (that will be a reality in another 50 years), this is the only neat and practical solution, like what Cyprus did.

[KJo]

Hizb has threatened to attack KP settlements. Tells you about the serious challenges and why kP settlements need to be clustered to defend them.

What do gurus here think about clustering Hindus in areas and giving them guns to defend themselves? Downside is that this may be hard to reverse and guns will find themselves in the rest of the country. Upside is that Muslims only listen to strength and not to reason, so they need to be displayed it for them to behave.

[shravanp]

There certainly will be adequate protection given to Hindu settlements. Not sure if the residents in there will get guns or the settlements itself will get a security cover.

However the main question is, is the settlement plan is in works or not?

[manjgu]

anybody who knows the character of KP's will understand its a non starter..they will not take up guns to protect themselves. this is a highly educated, peaceful, docile community..Further, what will they do inside the settlement..where will they work..will they give up lucartive jobs in india/abroad to settle there?

[wig]

http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/jammu- ... 54121.html

Refugees, Pandits unite to take on separatists

With separatist organisations closing their ranks to oppose settlement of Pandits back in the Valley and granting of rights to Hindu and Sikh refugees displaced due to Kashmir issue since 1947, refugees’ organisations have decided to unite to fight “propaganda” against them.
Refugee leaders have also reaffirmed their resolve to continue fight against the discrimination meted out to them by successive governments in Jammu and Kashmir and silence of the Central government, which they said had “succumbed” to pressure tactics of fundamentalist and radical elements in Kashmir.
A seminar “J&K, Jehad, Genocide — The refugee crisis since 1947”, organised by Panun Kashmir (PK) on the eve of World Refugee Day with speakers alleging that minorities were the victims of an “ideological movement” which aimed to turn the state into a Muslim-majority state.
“Hindu refugees should use all means which put their case in a perspective and in an internationally recognised frame-work and there is a need to challenge all such euphemism and policies of the state that have kept refugees embroiled in a situation of confusion and helplessness for almost 70 years”, said the resolution passed in the seminar.
Speaking on the occasion, Jammu for India (JFI) convener Prof Hari Om said that time had come for the minority community, especially those displaced since 1947, to have a united front.
“Demand for autonomy and self-rule defining politics of the Kashmir-centric political parties and demand for freedom by the separatist constituency are primarily a reflection of the majority community’s intent to establish an exclusivity Islamic state,” said Hari Om, former ideologue of BJP who resigned from the party over alliance with the PDP.
West Pakistan Refugee Action Front’s Labha Ram Gandhi said that while refugees from China and Tibet were quickly absorbed and bestowed citizenship and basic rights, the Hindu refugees had been denied even basic citizenship rights.
The speakers also expressed concern over reports that Dharamarth Trust, the custodian of Hindu temples and shrines in the state, was allegedly contemplating to sell the premises belonging to the Guptaganga Asthapan situated in Srinagar.
“Guptaganga was an important symbol and holy place to the Sanskrit civilization of Kashmir. The place was synonymous with Abhinavgupta and references to it were available in the ancient texts of Kashmir. The place had a great significance to the growth of Kashmir Shaivism,” said Panun Kashmir chairman Ajay Chrangoo.
Others who spoke on the occasion included POJK Displaced Persons Front president Rashpal Singh Chib, eminent social worker Yuvraj Gupta, and Panun Kashmir convener Agnishekhar

[abhik]

We should have removed 'special status' for J&K in the 80s/90s when the KMs started showing their pakiness. We lost thousands of lives, $$$ and had our people ethnically cleansed yet we have nothing to show for it.

[Supratik]

Jammu already has VDCs armed with basic rifles and it is working well. Similar stuff needs to be done with the KP settlements.

[Sachin]

Jammu already has VDCs armed with basic rifles and it is working well. Similar stuff needs to be done with the KP settlements.

Do we have a profile of the VDCs in Jammu? Are they from the same Pandit community?? Or are they formed of certain communities who are more "martial" (sorry to use the British classification, but I feel it has got some merit)??

[jamwal]

Jammu VDCs are formed by Dogras and Paharis, sometimes muslims in some villages, not Kashmir Pandits. When you say Jammu, by default it means that there are no Kashmiris or Pandits ( Kashmiri Pandits). These are groups of able-bodied men and sometimes women too from small and hard to reach villages or settlements of a handful of houses. It's impossible for army to guard each such place so these VDCs help the army by providing intelligence and forming a line of defence till army reaches to rescue.

They are armed with outdated Lee Enfield rifles, so you can't really expect them to be very effective but it's better than nothing. A few months back two members of a VDCs captured a heavily armed terrorist . Remember the one one who said that he was in India to kill Hindus as it was fun ?

[wig]

^^
J&K has three administrative divisions. Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir.
The VDC are in Jammu Division. The people indigenous to this area call themselves Dogras.
The Kashmiri Pandits are a different community indigenous to the Kashmir Valley.
There are other communities also in J&K state.
The Dogras are hardy folks who reside in the hills, foothills and plains of Jammu, Samba, Rajouri, Poonch etc. They constitute the local population.
These hardy hill folks are recruited in the Regiment of Dogras, the Jammu & Kashmir Rifles , and the Jammu & Kashmir Light Infantry.
These Infantry Regiments of our Army have a chequered history and have distinguished themselves in war and peace.

[Varoon Shekhar]

[quote="Pranay"]http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-36525694

[quote]Kashmir: Outrage over settlements for displaced Hindus

Interesting, recently the BBC, which has a reputation, rightly or wrongly, for being generally unsympathetic to India, has carried two articles which could only induce sympathy. And outrage toward the other side.

While not explicitly taking on the Pandits' case, the reference to a Pandit being taken away, then hanged on a tree, can't help but make people disgusted, or at least shake their heads. This fellow was not even an admitted 'police informer' or otherwise involved against the separatists directly. And look at what happened to him. And he's not an 'illegal settler' a la the West Bank, nor an ethnic Han trying to change the demographics of Tibet. The motive for the murder could only be religious/communal and ideological.

The BBC also in the last 2 weeks displayed an article on its website, written by a PIO, about the horrific Orissa famine of 1866. And the article very smartly referred to the heat wave and drought that was currently affecting India. It specifically blames "the British" for the deaths of one million people, at the time an enormous percentage of the population.

No shifting of blame to native hoarders, black marketeers, moneylenders, incompetent local native officials or the caste system. The British, the British, all the way.

[Supratik]

Also we should stop this propaganda that Kashmiri Pundits are some kind of sissies who can't fight. Against a 95% majority, a 5% minority will always find it difficult to fight back without external support. even the martial Punjabis fled west Punjab even thought they made up 25% of the population. We are in an existential fight in J&K and there will be casualties. I may be lecturing from a distance but that is the reality. KPs with if possible co-located Sainik colonies and security arrangements and the inevitable migration of outsiders will provide a reasonable cover but will not be 100% effective. Barring overturning Art 370 this is the best bet for reclaiiming Kashmir. Expect hysterical and violent opposition.

[nirav]

Saw a promo of 'Kashmir diaries' to be aired by Barkha Dutt this week on NDTV.

In the intro, she used a term normally used by RWers online.She said 'what about the ghar wapasi of Kashmiri Pandits'.

Although her tilt is well known, who knows, something good may come out of it.
The Psec liberals do need to know issues faced by KPs and their displacement.

[ramana]

She is a chameleon with more lizard qualities.

[nirav]

Sure is, but this news business is such that you never know.she herself might go through "ghar wapasi".

The quality of her programming can and will have an impact on opinions of lib "seculars" the primary viewership of NDTV.

I'm keen to see how she deals with the vexed issue of KPs.

[habal]

atleast they can give these VDC shotguns and semi automatic assault rifles. That should be minimum.

looking at the pics it seems they are being punished with inferior quality weapons for siding with India.

[habal]

You may not know it, but burkha was very friendly and on first name terms with previous NDA govt. She is on first name basis with Sushma Swaraj, Jaitley and entire pro-advani crowd of lootyens.

[Supratik]

She is ideologically BIF. Don't expect her to change and when did journalists started to decide GOI policy.

[wig]

http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/commen ... 55003.html

The many shades of violence by Lt Gen (retd) Syed Ata Hasnain
[quote]
A recent media report revealed that a Jaish-e-Mohammad "suicide bomber" has been apprehended in Baramula in Jammu and Kashmir. In the 26 years of violence in Jammu and Kashmir, suicide bombing has been a rarity. I do recall that we had one or perhaps two attempts at suicide bombing at the Batwara gate of Badami Bagh Cantonment, Srinagar. In one such event in 2001, a young Kashmiri student studying abroad blew himself up in a Maruti 800 while attempting to ram the double-gate security system.
There is much difference between a "suicide bomber" and a "suicide attacker". Most people confuse the two and treat them as synonymous. A suicide bomber comes strapped with explosives or drives a vehicle laden with explosives to take on a specific target or a gathering and cause maximum casualties. The suicide attacker is one who is armed to the teeth, takes hostages but isn't wired and geared to blow himself. He targets individuals and groups at random and is prepared to die in the response of the security forces (SF), without making any serious effort to escape.
The regretful assassination of Rajiv Gandhi was a rare case of suicide bombing in India. The kind of security measures you need to take against threats of that kind can actually paralyse societies. Ask the Pakistanis, Afghans and Iraqis; no one knows better than them. India has been fortunate in this regard despite a clutch of internal security threats. It is the Improvised Explosive Device or IED which has been the usual weapon here, for many years.
The IED was truly introduced as a military weapon in our context by the LTTE in Sri Lanka in 1987. Our troops used to the conventional anti-personal mines thought that we could use detection methods to unearth the IEDs and mines but the LTTE's Johnny mine, was virtually non-detectable. The LTTE employed more IEDs than mines. Those were the days when remote control and mobile- initiated IEDs had not come into being.
When I mentioned the role of IEDs in military operations at a talk to the US Marines in Hawaii in 2000, I received blank stares. Two years later, the Marines were battling IEDs in Afghanistan and then in Iraq. The Hollywood film Hurt Locker captured the threat of IEDs most graphically. The US came up with various counter-IED concepts but could never achieve supremacy over the car bomb in particular.
India has been free from car bombs quite unlike our neighbours, Pakistan and to an extent even Sri Lanka. There is hardly a counter measure available against them and methods of prior detection or controlled detonation haven't fully succeeded.
The last time a major car-bomb incident took place was in 2004, when an Army bus was targeted by terrorists near Pattan using a Maruti wired and laden with explosives. It only killed the driver. Another attempt at Udhampur in 2011 did not succeed. The last time a major IED was successfully detonated in Kashmir was on July 20, 2008, on the Srinagar-Baramula highway. Nine brave Army soldiers travelling home were killed. Does seven years of absence of such terror activity indicate a transformation of conflict?
Conflict undergoes transformation for various reasons. Among them is the availability of resources, both human and material. Good intelligence ensured targeting of "IED doctors" who are essential for the fabrication of IEDs. There is no dearth of explosive available within Kashmir, mostly for quarrying and none of it is under security control; detonators are also available but it was the cleaning out of IED doctors which did the trick. IEDs in Manipur still appear to be more frequent, particularly on rural roads but in Naxal areas the frequency is even higher.
One of the ways of preventing IED attacks is to minimise movement. The security forces in Naxal areas need to open roads just once or maximum twice a month with all light logistics maintenance being done by helicopters. This was the model the Indian Army adopted in Sri Lanka. It dramatically reduced IED incidents and, therefore, casualties. The CRPF badly needs aviation support which can enable this.
Focusing on suicide attacks, often referred to as Fidayeen attacks, we can see that 1999-2003 was the period in Jammu and Kashmir when these were at the highest pitch. Very few locals were ever involved. These terrorists were sometimes death-row convicts from Pakistani jails and even a few HIV patients motivated for the afterlife. Against these, a high level of alert and physical security measures were required which forced out-of-proportion deployment. We have not seen too many of these type of attacks in the North-East or the Naxal areas, where it is usually ambushes on which insurgents depend.
In 1999, almost in conjunction with the operations in Kargil, there was a sudden surge in these sneak suicide attacks against military garrisons. It was a phase immediately after the virtual drying up of the presence of foreign (other than Pakistani) terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir. The security forces had to expend much of their budgets to raise masonry walls and wire obstacles, besides establishing double gates and execution of domination of their perimeters.
Suicide attacks of the 26/11 variety are similar operations on a larger scale. Attempts to infiltrate the Srinagar airport in November 2000 and the recent events at Pathankot are also examples at varying levels. In today's environment, the vulnerability of North Punjab and the Jammu-Kathua sector is higher for such suicide attacks because of the ease of infiltration and availability of potential high-value targets in the vicinity of the border. Pakistan-based terror groups, backed by ISI, have a supply chain of potential suicide attackers and even bombers, psyched and motivated with religious fervour.
Currently in Kashmir it isn't easy to carry out such attacks, unless it is by home- grown renegades. Despite the influence of radical Islam and the antipathy of the Kashmiri youth towards everything Indian, a positive that remains is that radical religious fervour has not travelled the full distance. It is existent, yet is different from the Taliban, TTP or Daesh variety. Which is why, the hope holds out that given suitable psychological conditioning and a positive outreach the situation can still be recovered. The recently experienced tactics of mob-based obstruction of Army and Police at encounter sites in Kashmir is considered by some as virtual suicide tactics. This is rare in the sheer volume of turnout but not something unseen in other areas where there is low-intensity conflict. It is a dangerous trend which is emboldening resistance, just as stone throwing did in 2008-10. The intent of separatists here is to showcase the David-and-Goliath effect to the Rights' community; picked up from Palestinian Intifada but taken beyond.
Sub-conventional violence is a subset of hybrid and asymmetric warfare. It is peculiar to regions and communities and the dynamics need detailed study by security experts and psychologists to determine counter-narratives which will work against them. There is no all-in-one formula to counter such violence, least of all the use of unbridled counter-violence, especially after stabilisation

[SSridhar]

** Alert **

Massive terror strike in Pampore. Eight CRPF jawans martyred. 20 jawans injured.

[SSridhar]

Terrorists attack CRPF bus in J&K, 5 jawans killed; 2 militants shot dead - ToI

Five jawans have been killed after terrorists attacked a CRPF convoy in Jammu & Kashmir's Pampore on Saturday.

Security forces shot dead two terrorists in retaliatory firing after the militants attacked the CRPF bus. The jawans were returning from a firing range practice when the terrorists attacked the convoy.

CRPF commandant Rajesh Yadav confirmed the deaths and said 20 CRPF personnel have been injured in the attack.

The operation is on as two more militants are believed to be hiding in the vicinity of the scene of encounter, the official said, adding, the injured jawans have been rushed to a hospital.

[chetak]

You may not know it, but burkha was very friendly and on first name terms with previous NDA govt. She is on first name basis with Sushma Swaraj, Jaitley and entire pro-advani crowd of lootyens.

If the congis had come back, she and /or turdesai would have got into the RS for sure.

she has spread her tentacles everywhere, left and lootyens right, Jehadi and EJ. serving her foreign and paki patrons well. She is very upset that her influence (and income) has been severely curtailed by Modi.

[nirav]

Reports state that the terrorists were trying to board the bus which had about 50+ CRPF jawans who were not armed.

The casualties would have been extremely high had they got onboard.

The time for a limited war with the bakis was yesterday. for how long will we keep taking such hits. Casualties in "peace time" have far exceeded Kargil casualties.
what about morale of our troops? Killing terrorists on our soil after they have taken a huge toll on our troops/civilians is no consolation.

we need to whack a disproportionate amount of paki jihadis, uniformed and non uniformed, in *their* side of the border.

Need to trend - #enough.is.enough #bomb.the.bakis

[Varoon Shekhar]

What is astounding is attacks like this one against the CRPF are barely, if at all, remembered by the general public, or even cited by the media except on the day they occur.

This incident should be a talking point at least, among the people. There is simply no way the attack could be the result of the oppressed Kashmiri people rising up against a dictatorship, and lashing out at the symbols of such a dictatorship. There is a functioning democracy in Kashmir, multiple political parties and an ongoing political process. This is terror, pure and simple. Terror doesn't have to be against only Kashmiri Pandits. Kaluchak, Samba, Pulwama, Kupwara, Doda, Ramnagar, Jammu et al were not strikes against the Pandits. They were unjustified violent assaults on Indian security forces and civilians. Everyone of them is important.

[CRamS]

My take on TSP's attack in Pampore is to continue their assault against India on all fronts especially after their "success" in thwarting India's NSG bid. This is announce to tell India, we are more than equal equal. Also note ISI simultaneously issues a statement through Hafeez pig about jihad to "take back" TSP rivers. There is a method in their madness.

[nirav]

^must blast that method to smithereens.

a limited war with severely punitive intent and outcome must be pursued.

[BharadwajV]

Sad effing day.
May the souls of the departed attain Moksha.
We need more APCs for security forces. The CRPF commandant mentioned that the Pakistani Jehadis first immobilised the Bus by taking out the front tyres and then proceeded to spraying from close range, even as they tried to storm the Bus.

A fricking APC/MRAP would have ensured zero losses on our side.
I also saw Kashmiri kids/wannabe militants pelting stones at the forces after the ambush.
Ungrateful scumbags.

[Lilo]

Valley collaborators should be castrated - I.e balls cutoff.

Imitate few Russian tactics from Chechnya.
Shutiyas should think twice before making an anti national statement or raising an Isis flag publicly.

The perceived soft handling in the valley is making collaborators crawl out of woodwork and this is behind the terror resurgence in the valley.Note how many turned up at a skewered pig's funeral recently.

[Prem]

Valley collaborators should be castrated - I.e balls cutoff.

Imitate few Russian tactics from Chechnya.
Shutiyas should think twice before making an anti national statement or raising an Isis flag publicly.
The perceived soft handling in the valley is making collaborators crawl out of woodwork and this is behind the terror resurgence in the valley.Note how many turned up at a skewered pig's funeral recently.

GOI can't' use violent tactics, better if collaborators are sent to the safety of islands in Indian ocean where they can fed the fishes and fishes feed on them.