Veena Razdan
On the night of 06 January 2022, as the people of Wadi-e-Kashmir were gearing up for their first major snow spell, the sound of Kalashnikov fire burst into Zoiu, a non-descript village in Central Kashmir. By dawn, it was common news that the Security Forces had terminated yet another group of militants in an encounter, but what was uncommon was the way the series of events unfolded during the encounter, on the preceding night. It was a mixed group of one local and two Pakistani militants including Wasim Qadir Mir, a 24 year old resident of Shahzadpora in Budgam district. During the encounter it seemed that Wasim who wanted to put down his arms probably with an aim to come out and surrender to the Security Forces was forced by the two Pakistani militants to keep firing back. Details that emerged later further confirmed that Wasim was actually killed by members of his own group, as a result of their failed attempts to resist him from surrendering. As it would have not only exposed the façade of so-called local national freedom movement but also would have shown the great human tragedy that the Valley has been subjected to since the last three decades by Pakistan based terror groups.
As far as Kashmir is concerned, Pakistan’s modus operandi continues to remain the same over the years i.e., infiltrate Pakistani militants into the Valley, in numbers sizable enough to create and operate cellular groups of 3-4 militants, comprising at least one misguided local boy. With this, Pakistan’s strategic aim remains to mislead the Global community and portray terrorism in J&K, result of a local uprising and an insurgent movement led by the local youth by creation of pseudo terror groups namely Kashmir Tigers and The Resistance Front (TRF) that are nothing but virtual Avatars of JeM and LeT respectively created by ISI, coupled with the tactical aim of ensuring that these local Kashmiri recruits provide the much-needed logistical support to the foreign militants and act as a conduit to keep terrorism in the Valley alive. But in reality, over the years these local recruits have been reduced to nothing but ‘terror mules’, acting as guides for the Pakistani militants, carrying the burden of Pakistan’s mis-information campaign and exploited to keep its terror factory up and running in the Valley. The local Kashmiri recruit lies at the heart of this vicious terror cycle, carefully planned and surgically executed by ISI backed terror groups including JeM and LeT.
So how does this terror cycle work and gets geared up? It all begins with ‘’talent’’ spotting, where radicalised mind and religious leaning form the virtues of a potential recruit. This coupled with heroism and thrill is used to entice the vulnerable young minds. Initially, after being employed for logistical errands, transportation of arms and ammunition and reconnaissance of potential targets, the local Kashmiri boys are tasked to carry out random acts of terror to include, grenade throwing, planting IED and stand-off attacks against Security Forces. This is done to ensure that they are booked for serious terror crimes and that there is no going back for them. Once the routes back to a normal civil life are severed, the next step is to recruit them into the terror folds, followed with deliberate circulation of their photographs carrying arms, swearing allegiance to proscribed terror groups. Even though, on the outside it may appear to be the only logical succession of events in the terror cycle, but the hidden motives and sinister plan unfolds while some of these disillusioned boys last long enough to realise how they have been exploited as a mere pawn at the hands of their masters sitting in Pakistan.
If, some of them despite all odds are still willing to give up arms, they are blackmailed for being exposed for the terror crimes they have been made to commit. If the persistence to surrender doesn’t end there, they are intimidated by threatening the life of their loved ones by the same recruiters who forced them into militancy. No matter how hard one tries to give up arms and go back to their home and live a normal life, they just fail to come out of this vicious quick sand of Pakistan’s terror cycle.
The life of Wasim Qadir Mir has also turned out to be one such example. Wasim was a school dropout who initially worked as an Over Ground Worker and subsequently was recruited into the terror folds in December 2020 by JeM commander Saifulla @ Lambu Bhai (a Pakistani terrorist). Even though Wasim’s stint as an active militant was short lived, he had a long list of acts of terror attributed to him including the recent Zewan attack in which three police personnel were killed and eleven others were injured on 13 December 21. It was probably his involvement in a long list of terror related incidents that prevented him from re-joining the main stream and eventually when he was given an opportunity by the security forces to save his own life, he did not stand a chance at the hands of the very companions for whom he was working as the ‘terror mule’.
