Kashmir Willow: Services in the cross-fire

The Services cricket team finds itself in the middle of a cross-fire for pulling out of a Ranji match with the Jammu & Kashmir team at Srinagar on 3 November 2009. The entire issue was blown up in the national media with veiled attacks on the army by politicians and commentators for maintaining “double standards” and sullying the image of the elected state government in Kashmir as well as the Indian Prime Minister's stance that the state is peaceful, normal. Wilting under the unexpected barrage of criticism the army top brass issued an apology to the local team and at the same time has reportedly sought explanations from its subordinate headquarters in an attempt to fix responsibility for what has now turned out to be an acutely embarrassing incident.

Besides the entire hullabaloo, there is a need to rationally explore the circumstances in which the decision to pull out was taken, especially in the backdrop of the overall security situation in J&K and India’s neighbourhood. According to media reports, the Srinagar based 15 Corps, the nerve centre of counter-insurgency operations in the Valley had carried out a security assessment of the match being played at the Sher-e-Kashmir Stadium in the heart of Srinagar city. After deliberating over its reconnaissance of the venue and all available intelligence inputs the headquarters recommended against the Services team participating in the match at that particular time. The recommendation in all wisdom was vetted by successive higher headquarters and the decision conveyed to the Board of Cricket for Control in India. It is reported that the BCCI declined a change in venue due to a tight schedule ultimately leading to a no-show by the Services team.

A Corps Headquarters is adequately resourced and competent enough to deliberate upon operational and intelligence related matters within its zone. Therefore, it is assumed that the recommendations made by it would have been a deliberate one after being privy to certain specific inputs suggesting targeting of the Services team at that venue. That all higher headquarters vetted it was a wise decision giving precedence to judgment at the ground (operational) level.

In the past fortnight at least three major infiltration attempts have been made by Pakistan backed militants in Kupwara district of north Kashmir. Seven well equipped militants were killed by the army while several others may have managed to sneak in. It is therefore not unfounded that a fidayeen or suicide squad could make its way even up to Srinagar. The desperation with which these groups were being pushed into Kashmir is in consonance with recent warnings from the Prime Minister downwards of an impending 26/11-type attack. For instance, on 29 October in the Keran sector, Pakistani troops fired 14 mortar rounds to provide cover to the infiltrating column from Dudhnial, a prominent LeT launch pad. This was a major cease-fire violation in the last six years in that sector. An identity card of a Pakistani infantry soldier was found on one of the killed Pakistani terrorist. It may well be possible that these groups were being pushed in with a task to carry out a spectacular attack in the valley.

In the recent past, militant activity has increased in Srinagar city, with sneak attacks on police and para-military personnel deployed at busy intersections. A car-bomb attack triggered by a cell phone was carried out on a police vehicle outside the Central Jail on 12 September. In all eight security force personnel have been killed and many more injured in these attacks since August. Similar attacks on the CRPF have taken place in Sopore town of north Kashmir during the same period. Several over-ground networks of terrorist tanzeems have been busted in Srinagar and its outskirts which have pointed to militant plots being hatched to carry out a major attack.

In this backdrop, where terrorists are desperately trying to re-kindle the waning insurgency in J&K, a spectacular attack taking place cannot be ruled out. And a Services team being targeted in the heart of Srinagar would not only have brought the ‘Kashmir issue’ back to the boil but also dented  the prestige of the armed forces. After the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore, targeting of cricketing teams by Pakistani terror groups who do not subscribe to cricket as a sport is well nigh possible.

Militant activities around Srinagar also went up in the past month with a potential suicide bomber being killed in an encounter at Pulwama on 13 October and a brief firefight in the Khrew forests with close to a dozen LeT terrorists escaping the dragnet and melting into Tral.

Also, a top LeT commander has been engaged in three encounters at different locations in Sopore town since 23 October. Three terrorists have been killed while the commander managed to slip away on all occasions. Terrorist activity and chatter having increased in the past fortnight may have given indicators towards a pending attack.

Although the ground situation in J&K has improved substantially in the past four years, in this day and age of global terrorism, the state remains vulnerable to one-off spectacular incidents of terrorism. It has already bore the brunt of fidayeen and stand-off attacks on security forces. This type of attack would be the best recourse for terrorists to dramatically bring back focus on Kashmir and project that the gun culture still holds relevance.

If a suicide bomber or a fidayeen squad reaches the vicinity of a populated area or a stadium, possibilities of collateral damage and civilian casualties cannot be negated. Therefore, the cricket team may have been withdrawn as a precautionary measure. It is not to imply that the army cannot protect its players or that the security situation in the state is not conducive enough to hold matches. The Services team would have been a symbolic target in a border state which has seen a lot of army action in the past two decades.

The situation in Pakistan has considerably worsened since the launch of the army offensive in South Waziristan. The spate of suicide attacks which also included one on the army General Headquarters in Rawalpindi have claimed hundreds of lives. Sponsors of terror would like to create a diversion by carrying out an attack on Indian soil and halt the offensive in the west to give themselves a breather. This would also temporarily unite all extremist elements in Pakistan against India.

The army in Kashmir has assisted the local populace in several ways by means of projects under ‘Operation Sadhbhavna’ and has constructed sports stadiums in several towns and villages. In fact cricket matches between the local civilian teams and army units is a regular feature in the Valley. Therefore, this incident should have been better managed between the BCCI and Services team’s controlling authority. The media and politicians went overboard in projecting the army as being averse to things looking up in the Valley. It would be prudent that matters related to security and operations are left to those dealing with it. Attempts to garner psychological and political mileage by questioning the army’s sincerity towards the Kashmiris only undermine its long-term efforts and sacrifices in stabilising the situation in Jammu and Kashmir.

(Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent the views either of the Editorial Committee or the Centre for Land Warfare Studies).