The recent spurt in terror attacks in Jammu & Kashmir is a ploy of the Pakistan Army-ISI combine and their terror affiliates to create a Burhan Wani type character to lambast India at a slew of events coming up at the international level, including Financial Action Task Force.
Assessments here suggest, the latest Pakistani tactic comes soon after neighbouring country’s Prime Minister Imran Khan was isolated at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meet in Bishek amid a towering presence of India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared at the meet to call out nations that sponsor terror.
Earlier, then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has used the United Nations platform in 2016 to hail Wani as a “young leader” who was “murdered” by India. Wani was a Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist who was neutralised by the security forces in an encounter in 2016.
A slew of events at UN and European Union are coming up in the next few months and a desperate Pakistan is seeking to exploit these platforms for an anti-India tirade by projecting liquidation of terrorists as human rights abuse by security forces in Jammu & Kashmir.
“The spiraling terror attacks in the Kashmir Valley by Pakistan sponsored terror groups are aimed at creating hero out of a terrorist to exploit the international audience as well as deflect domestic pressures on the failing economy in the terror sponsoring nation,” counter-terrorism expert Dr Rituraj Mate said.
The Pakistani tactic also comes days ahead of the visit of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s visit to New Delhi and Islamabad to provoke security forces in Jammu & Kashmir to initiate major counter-terror operation in the Valley.
In its bid to deceive the international community ahead of the FATF meeting later this month, the Pakistan Government has also sent an alert to India and the US that an attack might be carried out in the Valley by terror groups through explosives-laden vehicle to project to the international anti-terrorist financing body and the international community that Islamabad has begun taking action against terror groups and sharing intelligence with New Delhi and Washington, sources said.
Apart from the cordon and search operations, the security forces have been engaged by the ultras in encounters, firing and throwing of grenades at security forces’ personnel in the last one week leading to a number of casualties of the Army, paramilitary and state police forces.