Saturday, December 16, 2006

Terror Comes Cheap

By Animesh Roul - Counterterrorism Blog - Medford,New Jersey,USA
Tuesday, November 14, 2006

In India’s Jammu and Kashmir State, spreading terror is not an expensive affair for terrorist outfits. Recently, a youth identified as Ghulam Nabi Mir confessed to have lobbed a grenade at a Mosque in Tahab village (Pulwama) on Nov 10 that killed Six people including four minors and nearly 50 others were injured including Sufi leader Abdul Rashid Dawoodi, the prime target of the grenade attack. Dawoodi escaped with splinter injuries.

Ghulam Nabi reportedly admitted to have received Rs 1000 (Aprox. $22) and two grenades from Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) militants.

"I had received Rs 1,000 for carrying out the attack on Maulana Rashid Dawoodi through one Hizb-ul Mujahideen terrorist, Gulzar Ahmad Mir alias Nika, and also received two hand grenades for the purpose," Mir said during the interrogation. Also, there has been uproar about the covert hand of security agencies to divide people of the area on sectarian lines.

However, there are two points of grave concern. At a strategic level, the extremist forces are using threats and violence over the moderate voices especially to impose their agenda for quite some time now in Jammu and Kashmir. HM (or other terrorist outfits like Laskar e Toiba) wants to eliminate moderate Islamic forces like Maulana Abdul Rashid Dawoodi, a Sufi saint and chief of Sawt-ul-Awliya).

Terrorist outfits are recruiting local unemployed and vagabonds as over ground workers (OGW) and pay as little as 500 to 1000 INR to perpetrate the crime. By using these ‘freelance (hired) terrorist’, the outfits have multiple advantages. The prime motive is to spread fear and death without spending too much in training, indoctrination and logistics. If the OGW hit the target then outfit takes the responsibility, if not (like in the Sufi saint attack), it has no qualms to shy away by disowning the OGW and condemning any collateral damage or civilian deaths. Here the idea is not to go against public sentiments.

This new trend emerged in mid 2006 in Kashmir, when reports of Lashkar-e-Toiba recruiting youths by enticing them with money came to lime light. Desperate for money, OGW’s are ready to do anything. Even there is a disturbing trend emerging in Jammu and Kashmir. Outfits are making efforts to recruit Children (Child Soldiers) to carry out operations in the valley. A 14 year old boy arrested for a grenade attack at a bus stand in the heart of Jammu that killed one person and left over ten people wounded in Late July this year, revealed to NDTV channel that he got some money from Abu Arbaz of Pakistan and a brief verbal training for lobbing grenades.

This is a tactical move on the parts of terrorist outfits operating in Jammu and Kashmir after suffering heavy losses due to counter terrorist operations in recent years.

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Saturday, December 16, 2006

Terror Comes Cheap
By Animesh Roul - Counterterrorism Blog - Medford,New Jersey,USA
Tuesday, November 14, 2006

In India’s Jammu and Kashmir State, spreading terror is not an expensive affair for terrorist outfits. Recently, a youth identified as Ghulam Nabi Mir confessed to have lobbed a grenade at a Mosque in Tahab village (Pulwama) on Nov 10 that killed Six people including four minors and nearly 50 others were injured including Sufi leader Abdul Rashid Dawoodi, the prime target of the grenade attack. Dawoodi escaped with splinter injuries.

Ghulam Nabi reportedly admitted to have received Rs 1000 (Aprox. $22) and two grenades from Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) militants.

"I had received Rs 1,000 for carrying out the attack on Maulana Rashid Dawoodi through one Hizb-ul Mujahideen terrorist, Gulzar Ahmad Mir alias Nika, and also received two hand grenades for the purpose," Mir said during the interrogation. Also, there has been uproar about the covert hand of security agencies to divide people of the area on sectarian lines.

However, there are two points of grave concern. At a strategic level, the extremist forces are using threats and violence over the moderate voices especially to impose their agenda for quite some time now in Jammu and Kashmir. HM (or other terrorist outfits like Laskar e Toiba) wants to eliminate moderate Islamic forces like Maulana Abdul Rashid Dawoodi, a Sufi saint and chief of Sawt-ul-Awliya).

Terrorist outfits are recruiting local unemployed and vagabonds as over ground workers (OGW) and pay as little as 500 to 1000 INR to perpetrate the crime. By using these ‘freelance (hired) terrorist’, the outfits have multiple advantages. The prime motive is to spread fear and death without spending too much in training, indoctrination and logistics. If the OGW hit the target then outfit takes the responsibility, if not (like in the Sufi saint attack), it has no qualms to shy away by disowning the OGW and condemning any collateral damage or civilian deaths. Here the idea is not to go against public sentiments.

This new trend emerged in mid 2006 in Kashmir, when reports of Lashkar-e-Toiba recruiting youths by enticing them with money came to lime light. Desperate for money, OGW’s are ready to do anything. Even there is a disturbing trend emerging in Jammu and Kashmir. Outfits are making efforts to recruit Children (Child Soldiers) to carry out operations in the valley. A 14 year old boy arrested for a grenade attack at a bus stand in the heart of Jammu that killed one person and left over ten people wounded in Late July this year, revealed to NDTV channel that he got some money from Abu Arbaz of Pakistan and a brief verbal training for lobbing grenades.

This is a tactical move on the parts of terrorist outfits operating in Jammu and Kashmir after suffering heavy losses due to counter terrorist operations in recent years.

No comments: