Every person who has been following the news for the past one week, would be aware of the encounter underway between the security forces and terrorists at Pulwama district of Jammu and Kashmir. The Kashmir Zone Police announced this on their twitter handle on Tuesday, 15th September 2020. But what triggered this clash involving the two parties?
This face off is not the first of its kind in the recent months. The last major attack at Pulwama took place in February last year, when a Jaish-e-Mohammed suicide bomber was responsible for the death of 40 CRPF jawans due to explosion. Since that incident, there have many more similar but comparatively minor attacks at not just Pulwama, but also other areas surrounding it like Baramulla, Sopore, Handwara, Tral and the most recent one being Shopian. On 28th August 2020, joint security forces gunned down four militants in Shopian district including the founder of Al Badr terrorist group Shakoor Ahmed Parray, and managed to capture one alive. They had abducted and killed the sarpanch of Khanmoh, and arms and ammunitions were also recovered from them.
Another Pulwama-type attack was averted in Gadikal by a joint search operation team. They found 52 kg of S-90 explosives along with 50 detonators in a Syntex water tank at an area just 9 km away from the spot where the previous year’s attack had taken place. It is not yet clear as to which group was planning this attack, but the prime suspect is JEM as they were the ones involved in the Pulwama explosion. They could have made an attempt to recreate the same attack once again.
The Indian Army has been extremely vigilant about every politically linked military move revolving around J & K and Pakistan. However, the trouble does not end there. The most recent revelation about terrorist infiltrations in India is downright spine-chilling. West Bengal and Kerala are now under the radar, after the National Investigation Agency (NIA) busted 9 al-Qaeda terrorists from these states last week. The NIA have also discovered key information about a Pak-sponsored interstate module of al-Qaeda operatives, which was designed to undertake attacks at vital installations at multiple locations including the National Capital Region (NCR) and targeted killings. Further search is now on to expose more such hideouts in other parts of the country as well.
On the flip side, Pakistan’s dependency on China is growing every day. Due to the building of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, it now owes about one-fifth of its external debt i.e. US$19 billion to China. Clearly, Pakistan will prefer to be in friendly terms with China. Meanwhile, the PLA troops have been trying to change the status quo at the LAC for quite some time. India’s talks with them have only seemed diplomatic on the surface, but there has not been a consensus regarding any form of peaceful disengagement yet. Amidst all this uncertainty, it is important that India’s armed forces measure their actions because any mistake could prove to be lethal.
Now coming back to the ongoing Pulwama encounter, there may be more than one motive for carrying out this operation. The militants could simply be trying to create tension at the South Kashmir region, in a bid to enter the area for orchestrating a larger attack consisting of explosives. Alternately, it could be a planned distraction to prepare a route for further infiltration of terrorists into the state. The bigger question is, should India’s armed forced continue the defensive resistance against Pakistan’s all bark and no bite attitude? Or is it high time for another surgical strike like Uri? You decide.
Written by Aritro Kundu.
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