J&K militants opting for fifth column
tactics, claim officials

Kashmir militants have begun opting for more subtle methods than violence, said officials, claiming it was evident from the increased number of bandh calls and the decrease in militant attacks.

This, they said, is due to the growing alienation of militants and the frustration caused by the replacement of local cadres by foreign mercenaries. As many as 30 hartal calls were given by militants up to March 31 as compared to a total of 90 in 1996; there were only 950 militant attacks this year as against 5,000 last year.

The All-Party Hurriyat Conference had called a hartal in Kashmir last month which paralysed normal life for about 11days.

''This has a psychological impact on the people. It is normal human tendency to blame the authorities when people are subjected to hardships. This alienates the people, thus serving the purpose of the militant's strategy of subjecting common people to psychological hardships,'' a top government official said.

The officials said an important aspect of the militants's strategy was that they were not confronting the security forces directly any more. Instead, they had begun provoking people to demonstrate against alleged custodial deaths and claims of human rights violations.

"This is intended only to demoralise the security forces and police and provoke the people to agitate against the government. This anti-government propaganda is launched to maintain their hold over the people,'' the sources added.

The killing of several top militant leaders in encounters with security forces had also frustrated the designs of militants, they claimed. They claimed the people’s positive response to the elections were a "big rebuff" to the militants who had called for a boycott.