Kashmir Situation and the Pakistani Involvement

The situation in Kashmir cannot be discussed without considering the actions of Pakistan. The volatile security scenario in the Indian state is a manifestation of Pakistan’s proxy war with India, combined with the unsettled political issues of the state.

In November-December 2014, elections were held to elect the Jammu and Kashmir state assembly. The regional People’s Democratic Party (PDP) emerged as the single largest party but could not form a government on its own. It was only in February 2015 that the BJP and the PDP decided to join together to form a government. In March, the coalition government was sworn in, and for the first time the BJP was part of a government in the state. Mufti Mohammed Sayeed of the PDP became the chief minister. But in January 2016, Mufti Mohammed Sayeed died, and this created problems for the coalition as the mufti’s daughter and successor as head of the PDP, Mehbooba Mufti, was not keen to take the post of chief ministership in association

with the BJP. As the alliance seemed to be in a crisis, Governor’s rule was promulgated. With the problems somewhat ironed out, Mehbooba Mufti took her oath as chief minister of the state in April 2016, the first woman to hold the position in the state.

Street protests started in Kashmir in July 2016 following the killing of Burhan Wani, a commander of the Hizbul Mujahideen, by security forces. Curfew was imposed but the protesters defied curfew and indulged in stone pelting against security forces and police. Indian security forces, trying to control the protesters, used pellet guns, which, although considered ‘non-lethal’, caused permanent eye damage in many cases. This only worsened the situation. In August 2017, Abu Dujana, the Pakistani commander of banned terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba, and his aide Arif Nabi Dar, were killed after a gun battle with government troops in Kashmir’s Pulwama district. There were violent protests over this too.

Differences in the coalition government came to the fore. Ultimately, the uneasy coalition came to an end in June 2018 when the BJP pulled out of the government. The immediate cause for the break between the two parties lay in their differences over the continuation of the Ramzan ceasefire. The militants continued with their terror tactics even during the ceasefire: the several terror incidents included the murders of journalist Shujat Bukhari and of Army jawan Aurangzeb. The union home minister was firm that terrorism had to be dealt with, ceasefire or no ceasefire. The alliance, in any case, had no ideological affinity and even lacked functional coordination. Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti tendered her resignation. The state was later placed under Governor’s rule again.

In the meanwhile, terrorist attacks on Indian forces took place every now and then. The Pathankot Air Force Station was attacked in January 2016, purportedly by terrorists belonging to Jaish-e-Mohammed. On June 25, 2016, a Central Reserve Police Force convoy was ambushed en route

from Pantha Chowk to the town of Pampore, in Pulwama district, for which the terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba subsequently claimed responsibility. Early morning on September 18, 2016, four heavily armed persons entered the administrative block of the army camp in the Uri sector, some 100 km from Srinagar, and killed a number of soldiers. It was the most serious attack on an army camp in 26 years. After a gun battle, all four terrorists were killed. Jaish-e- Mohammed was suspected of being involved in the attack. India conducted surgical strikes in retaliation on September 29, 2016, against terrorist launch pads across the Line of Control in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. The Indian Army said that a number of militants were neutralised in the operation. However, this did not act as much of a deterrent as, on the night of October 3, 2016, terrorists fired at and lobbed grenades on a Rashtriya Rifle battalion in Baramulla. The attackers were reported to have been Pakistani nationals belonging to Jaish-e-Mohammad. The border continued to be tense for some time, with several attacks being perpetrated by the Pakistanis and the Indian side forced to return fire. On February 14, 2019, a convoy of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) was the target of a bomb blast when it was attacked by a vehicle-borne suicide bomber in the Pulwama district on the Jammu Srinagar Highway. The attack, said to be the deadliest against Indian forces in Kashmir in decades, killed 40 CRPF personnel besides the attacker. The

Jaish-e-Mohammad claimed responsibility for the attack.

In the early hours of February 26, Mirage fighter jets of the Indian Air Force (IAF) took off from various air bases in India and crossed the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir, and targeted the Jaish-e-Mohammed terror camp in Balakot in the Khyber Pakhtunwa province with missiles. India termed the airstrike an ‘intelligence-led, non-military, pre-emptive’ operation. According to IAF briefings to the government, 80 per cent of the bombs had been successful in hitting the targets and had inflicted the requisite damage

to the enemy locations. Pakistan’s military, however, said that the damage was just to an uninhabited wooded hilltop area near Balakot. International media too said that the attacks did not hit the said target, as satellite pictures showed structures standing intact. There was some confusion on the issue as media was not allowed near the said spot by the Pakistani authorities till April. In its report, the IAF observed that the Spice bomb that was used in the attack penetrates a target killing people inside rather than inflicting damage to the outside of a building. So the IAF did not have much evidence by way of pictures to prove that the Balakot strikes actually took place, the report said. A fragmentation bomb would have flattened the structures that would have been easier to present as evidence, it said.

The Balakot airstrike pushed India and Pakistan to the brink of an armed conflict. Pakistan Air Force attempted retaliatory strikes on February 27, 2019. The IAF scrambled its fighter jets in response, leading to a dogfight between the Indian and Pakistani jets in the skies over Jammu and Kashmir. An IAF MiG-21 Bison fighter jet shot down a Pakistani F-16 during the dogfight. But the MiG too was shot down and its pilot, Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, was captured by Pakistani forces. He was released two days later, thus lowering the tension between India and Pakistan. In the wake of the skirmish, both Pakistan and India blocked airspace for each other. The closure of Pakistani airspace led to considerable losses for carriers – Indian and international - flying to the west of India as the flights were forced to take a longer route. Pakistan also lost the money that it would otherwise have earned from route navigation and airport charges levied on flights using its airspace or landing for maintenance or refuelling. It was in July 2019

that the airspace was opened.