Post abrogation of Article 30 that granted special status to Jammu & Kashmir and disruption of the terror network in the Valley, Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence has shifted its terror tactic by forming a new terror group under the banner of The Resistance Front that seeks to rebrand the jehadi movement as a political resistance in order to gain wider acceptance from Muslim politicians from mainland India.
The Resistance Front comprising sympathisers of the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba and Hizbul Mujahideen is an armed wing of a newly created political entitiy Tahreek-e-Azadi Jammu and Kashmir. These outfits were floated by ISI in March and seeks to create a new network of ultras and overground workers as the earlier ecosystem has been disrupted by the security forces even as the Hurriyat Conference has become operationally irrelevant in the wake of exposure of its dubious dealings in NIA probe and arrest of workers after the change in status of Jammu and Kashmir after scrapping of Article 370.
The outfit is targeting the workers of the mainstream political parties in the Valley who could be roped in for jehadi agenda under the garb of political resistance.
In a message to the people of the Union Territory, the mujahideen group headed by one Abu Anas Hamza claims that after the scrapping of Article 370 on August 5 last year even chiefs of political parties like National Conference and People's Democratic Front were not spared and put behind bars despite being loyal to India.
Hamza claimed that Kashmiri Muslims will not be spared despite being loyal to India. He also likened the mainstream politicians as profiteers who only understand the language of power and can compromise to any extent to grab power and money. Such politicians do not have any consideration for the atrocities being perpetrated on the people in the Valley as they are only hungry for money, Hamza claimed in his bid to wean away the political workers of these parties to its fold who could work as over ground workers.
Hamza also mentioned about former PDP legislator Altaf Bukhari who formed a new political party last month titled as Jammu and Kashmir Apni Party and said the mujahideens are conspiring against him as he is a worshipper of wealth and a culprit before God.
The outfit also exhorted the mainstream parties to learn a lesson from the crackdown post abrogation of Article 370 and continue to support India in which case the mujahideens will target them.
He further said all opportunistic politicians who continue to side with India will be targeted.
Counter Terrorism Expert Dr Rituraj Mate said, "Following the scrapping of Article 370 and identification of the terrorist network and infrastructure in the sustained operations by the security forces, the jehadi tanzeems have been feeling marginalised and suffocated in terms of operational relevance. This has led the Pakistani Army-ISI combine to shift tactic by seeking to create a new network and brand the jehadi violence as a political resistance. The Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front was created in the early nineties in a similar manner which acted outwardly as a political entity but was actually engaged in jehadi movement."
On Sunday, the outfit in a letter sought to target the CRPF engaged in anti-terrorist operations and law and order role in the Valley.
"The IG of Occupational Indian CRPF Rajesh Yaadav has said that he will take revenge for yesterday's attack in which many CRPF men were killed and injured, we want to tell him that we did not go to Bihar(IG Rajesh Yadav's homeland) to kill CRPF men. It is you who have come from Bihar to our homeland as an occupational force. This is not your homeland. You do not look like us, you do not speak like us, you and us have nothing in common. Instead you kill our young men, you humiliate our elderly. You are planning to make colonies in Kashmir where RSS activists will be settled to change our demography as is openly being said by your Fascist BJP Political Masters," the outfit claimed.
"So do not threaten us with revenge. Bring all that you can. Bring more if 1 million combined troops strength against a few hundred resistance fighters is inadequate for you, and then you will see what lightning and thunder we will bring to you," reads the letter issued under the name of self-styled Commander Hamza.