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Jammu is the new killing ground for terrorists

The shift in terrorist activities to Jammu from the Kashmir Valley is apparent from the statistics. In the last three months, the majority of the terrorist attacks and killings have taken place in the Jammu region.

"More than 100 killings of civilians, security personnel and militants have been recorded in Jammu region during May, June and July this year, while as for the Kashmir region the number remains much lesser than 50 for the same period," a police officer told rediff.com

Jammu was peaceful when militancy started in the Valley in the late eighties. Thanks to the heavy inflow of tourists to the famous Vaishno Devi shrine, the economy boomed and by the mid-nineties Jammu became a sprawling city with high real estate prices.

"It looked like a small Delhi. All the branded outlets opened here. Shopping malls and car showrooms sprung around the city. And the new rich people would move around the city till late at night, playing loud music in their cars," Bashir Ahmad Lone, who works at the Jammu University, told rediff.com

But around 1998, things began to change, as terrorists began making inroads into the hilly districts of Poonch, Rajouri and Doda.

The killing of 12 Village Defence Committee members and some of their kin in July 1999 in Lahotta village of Doda district was one of the major attacks that signalled the intensification of terrorist operations in region.

Emboldened, they moved from the hilly areas to the plains. On August 7, 2001, terrorists attacked the Jammu railway station and killed more than 10 people.

"Although we cannot clearly point towards a date when the level of violence increased in the Jammu region, a new dimension was added last year when the terrorists attacked the railway station. It was for the first time that the suicide squads were targeting civilians," said P L Gupta, Inspector General of Police, Jammu region.

Following the incident, six district of the state were declared 'disturbed' under the Armed Forces Special Powers Act to give more powers to security forces to combat militancy.

However, things did not change much. Attacks on the Raghunath temple in the heart of Jammu city, on the family quarters of armymen at Kaluchak and labourers in Qasim Nagar this year showed that the focus of terrorists had shifted.

"Jammu residents are feeling insecure now. In the last three-four years, militancy has crept into Jammu. Since Poonch and Rajouri got involved things have changed for worse," Mangat Ram Sharma, the state vice-president of the Congress, said.

"The tranquil life we had in Jammu has been affected. But people are learning to take it in their stride," Sawti Sharma, a lawyer, told rediff.com

The police authorities say that the shift is meant to show that the problem is not confined to Kashmir.

"Apart from that it is creating a sense of insecurity among the people and vitiating communal harmony in the region," Gupta said.

Meanwhile, with every big attack, an articulate urban minority consisting of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh supporters and a local students' organisation, the Jammu Joint Students' Federation, have been raising the pitch for separate statehood for Jammu.

The demand was first articulated in 1947 by Balraj Madhok, the then secretary general of the Jan Sangh, which gave birth to the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Their contention is that successive governments in J&K headed by Kashmiri Muslims have neglected the Jammu region. The RSS has called for the division of the state into four parts -- Jammu, Ladakh, Kashmir and a Union Territory carved out of the Valley for migrant Kashmiri pandits.

But the majority of the people of Jammu are not in favour of the division of the state.

"The demand for a separate Jammu state, basically on religious lines, will lead to similar demands of separation from the region's Muslim majority districts -- Poonch, Rajouri and Doda," said Ved Bhasin, the chairman of the daily Kashmir Times.

The discrimination between Jammu and Srinagar, he added, is the same as the discrimination between the urban and rural centres within both Jammu and Kashmir region.

Terrorism Strikes in Jammu and Kashmir: The complete coverage

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