Terror- Talk and Internal Health

In Kashmir, Trump's Afghan policy and the BRICS terror tag bring no respite

- Naseer Ganai

A day after BRICS—the association of five major emerging economies (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Afr­ica)—linked Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) with global Islamist militant groups ISIS and Al-­Qaeda, Jamaat-­ud-Dawah (JuD) chief Hafiz Abdul Rehman Makki said in Lahore that the mujahids (Arabic for one who struggles for a cause) were ready to pay in blood for taking the “Kashmir struggle” to its logical end. Intelligence sources and top police officials of Jammu and Kashmir Police do not expect the BRICS statement to affect the strength of LeT and the United Jihad Council (UJC)—a conglomerate of militant groups active in the Kashmir Valley, with Hizbul Mujahideen as the most prominent. Both Hizbul and UJC are led by Syed Salahuddin.

In fact, a better indicator of what’s to come, according to intelligence sour­ces, is in Makki’s reaction to the statement. Pointing out that the Pakistan government could not resolve the Kashmir issue in the past 70 years through dialogue with India, Makki, who took over as JuD chief in March, declared that “jihad” (holy war) was the only path to a solution.

The Jammu and Kashmir government, though, hopes Pakistan would take the BRICS message positively. “We hope they stop using violence to achieve their goal,” says Naeem Akhtar, spokesman and senior minister in Mehbooba Mufti’s cabinet. However, many in the Valley see the BRICS statement as a move to placate India for withdrawing its forces from Dok­lam following a tense border standoff with China.

More than BRICS, it is US President Donald Trump’s new Afghanistan pol­icy, announced in August, which has caught the attention of top officials. With the US committing to have more boots on the ground in Afghanistan and asking NATO allies to follow suit, militant groups such as JeM may modify their strategy.