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The Kashmir Conflict and Its Global Reach1

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The Kashmir Conflict and Its Global Reach1 Intelligence and Terrorism 21.6.06 Information Center at the Center for Special Studies (C.S.S) The Kashmir Conflict and its Global Reach1 Bluma Zuckerbrot-Finkelstein There are currently numerous Islamic extremist organizations employing terror and violence to force the secession of Indian-held Kashmir from India. Some of these groups are Pakistani-based and some are Kashmiri. Some advocate the political independence of Kashmir, while others seek to unite Indian-held Kashmir with Pakistani-held Kashmir. Some are composed of Kashmiris, some of Pakistanis, and some have recruited Arabs, Afghans, and other foreigners into their ranks. The decades-long conflict over Kashmir has critical regional and international implications for the United States and the international community. First, escalation of the conflict between India and Pakistan could trigger the destabilization of India and/or Pakistan and launch a domino effect on regional and international security. Secondly, escalation could lead to a nuclear confrontation between the two powers. Finally, the conflict has already spilled over into the realm of international terrorism, and its escalation could further endanger Westerners and Western interests. 1 http://www.ajc.org/counterterrorismwatch 2 This analysis will focus on several of the Pakistani-based groups whose goals extend beyond Kashmir. These groups are embedded in the South Asian and global jihad movements and pose serious threats to American and Western interests around the world. Background to the Conflict After the creation of the independent states of India and Pakistan in 1947, war broke out over territorial claims to the Muslim-dominated but then Hindu-ruled Kashmir region. India and Pakistan fought two wars over Kashmir, in 1947 and 1965. In 1972, the two nations signed an accord agreeing to respect the ceasefire line known as the Line of Control (LoC), a 750-km. border that divides villages and separates families. Indian Kashmir, which includes the Kashmir Valley, Jammu, and Ladakh, comprises about ten million people and is generally referred to as Jammu and Kashmir (J&K). The Kashmir Valley is 80 percent Muslim while Jammu is 66 percent Hindu. Ladakh is almost evenly divided among Muslims and Buddhists. Pakistani Kashmir comprises about three million people and is 99 percent Muslim. A small portion of the Kashmir region is under Chinese sovereignty. New Delhi claims J&K as an integral part of India. Islamabad maintains India has no legal right to the territory and demands that Kashmiris be allowed to vote in a referendum on their future. Since 1989, Islamic militants allegedly supported by Pakistan have been waging a violent separatist rebellion against Indian rule in 3 Kashmir. These militants are based in Pakistan, Pakistani-held Kashmir, and Indian Kashmir. Their targets include the Indian government, Indian troops and civilians in Indian Kashmir, and military and civilian targets in other parts of India. Some separatist groups, like the Jammu-Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), are fighting for Kashmir to become an independent state. Both India and Pakistan reject this option. An estimated 90,000 people have been killed as a result of the separatist violence. In 1999, Pakistani soldiers crossed the Line of Control (LoC) into Indian-held Kashmir and heavy fighting ensued for six weeks. Throughout 2000 and 2001, cross-border firing and shelling led to many civilian and military deaths. Pakistan-based terrorist groups are believed responsible for the October 2001 bombing at the Jammu and Kashmir state assembly building that killed thirty-eight people and the December 2001 assault on the Indian Parliament in New Delhi that killed fourteen people. India and Pakistan were on the verge of another full-scale war following the May 2002 Pakistani attack on the residential quarters of an Indian army base at Kaluchak, in J&K, that killed thirty-four people, mostly women and children. The U.S. played a key role in diffusing those tensions. A November 2003 cease-fire reduced, but did not eliminate, cross- border infiltrations. In January 2004, India and Pakistan issued a joint "Islamabad Declaration" calling for renewed dialogue to bring about a "peaceful settlement of all bilateral issues, including Jammu and Kashmir, to the satisfaction of both sides." Bus service between 4 Muzaffarabad in Pakistani Kashmir and Srinagar in Indian Kashmir was inaugurated in April 2005, and in the wake of the devastating October 2005 South Asian earthquake, five border crossings along the Line of Control were opened to help facilitate aid efforts. Nevertheless, despite ongoing Pakistani-Indian dialogue and on the ground confidence-building developments, Pakistan and Kashmir- based terrorist groups continue to wage their campaign of separatist violence. Due to the deteriorating security situation in Kashmir following the earthquake, Islamic militant activity has reportedly increased in the region. India charges the Pakistani government with actively assisting the violent Muslim separatists by providing them with training bases, materiel, funds, safe passage, and ideological support. According to the Rand Corporation, at least ninety-one insurgent training camps exist in Pakistani-held Kashmir. It is widely believed that the violent insurgency is directly controlled and managed by Pakistani intelligence?the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence Agency (ISI). Islamabad responds that it provides only moral and diplomatic support to what it calls Kashmiri "freedom fighters." Leading Islamic Militant Groups with Links to Global Terrorism Several of the groups waging the Kashmiri separatist war aim for pan-Islamic rule in Central Asia and worldwide jihad. Some are 5 linked to Al-Qa`ida and have been involved in terrorist attacks against Americans and other Western targets. Three of the major Islamic extremist groups currently operating in Kashmir are: Lashkar-e-Taiba (LET), Harkat ul-Mujahideen (HUM), and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JEM). All three are listed by the U.S. State Department as designated foreign terrorist organizations. LET and HUM are members of Osama bin Ladin's International Islamic Front For Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders and signed the organization's February 1998 fatwa urging attacks on Americans and Western interests. HUM and JEM have both been implicated in the 2002 kidnapping and murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl. Lashkar-e-Taiba (LET) LET, a.k.a. Army of the Righteous, Al-Mansoorian, was founded in 1990 as the military wing of the Markaz-ud-Dawa-wal-Irshad (MDI), Center for Religious Learning and Social Welfare, a Pakistani Wahhabi religious organization based in Muridke, near Lahore. MDI runs a vast network of Islamic schools, and healthcare services. Founded by Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, who remains its spiritual mentor, LET was initially created to participate in the Afghanistan Jihad. The group is currently led by Maulana Abdul Wahid Kashmiri and is one of the largest, best-trained, and most active groups fighting in Kashmir. Saeed now heads Jamaat ud- Dawa, Party for Preaching, a recasting of MDI. 6 Beyond challenging India's sovereignty over J&K, MDI/LET seeks the restoration of Islamic rule over all of India and the union of all Muslim majority regions in countries that surround Pakistan. In a 1997 interview Saeed said: "We feel that Kashmir should be liberated at the earliest. Thereafter, Indian Muslims should be aroused to rise in revolt against the Indian Union so that India gets disintegrated." LET maintains terror training camps along the LoC and in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani-held Kashmir. It is believed to have offices and supporters throughout Pakistan. Hafiz Mohammad Saeed is on India's list of most-wanted terrorists. LET began attacks against Indian troops and civilians in J&K in 1993. It is infamous for suicide attacks and cold-blooded massacres of non-Muslim civilians, including women and children. Two notorious massacres were the June 1998 murder of twenty-five Hindu villagers in Doda as they were returning from a wedding and the July 2002 massacre of twenty-seven Hindus in a slum area of Jammu. LET claimed responsibility for several attacks in 2001, including the January attack on the Srinagar airport that killed five Indians and the February attack on a Srinagar police station that killed eight police officers. LET is suspected of involvement in the December 2001 Indian Parliament attack and the May 2002 Kaluchak army base attack. 7 Three days before the Hindu festival of Dilawi, in October 2005, terrorists bombed two crowded marketplaces and a bus in New Delhi, killing fifty-nine people and wounding over 200 others. It is suspected that the little-known group Islamic Inqilabi Mahaz (IIM), Islamic Revolutionary Movement, which claimed responsibility for the bombings, is a front group for LET. In a telephone call to a media outlet, an IIM spokesman said, attacks will continue "until India pulls out all its troops from the state of Kashmir." IIM was one of two groups that claimed responsibility for the November 1997 killing of four American employees of Union Texas Petroleum in Karachi. The Delhi bombings had followed the conviction of LET militant Mohammad Arif, a.k.a. Ashfaq, and six others for the December 2000 attack on the historic Red Fort monument in Delhi, which killed two guards and a civilian. LET had claimed responsibility for that attack. In early November 2005, LET spokesman Abu Huzaifa denied LET involvement in the attacks claiming, "Lashkar does not believe in carrying out attacks against civilians, especially women and children. We reiterate that Lashkar had no hand in the Delhi attacks." Also in October 2005, Islamic militants shot to death Ghulam Nabi Lone, 62, the J&K state education minister, at his home in Srinagar. Al-Mansoorian, another alleged front for LET, claimed 8 responsibility. LET's tentacles reach worldwide. LET members have reportedly participated in Islamic militant activities in Afghanistan, Chechnya, Bosnia, Kosovo, the Philippines, and Iraq.
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