'Pakistan will intervene militarily in Kashmir as a last option'

Pakistan has not ruled out direct military intervention in Jammu and Kashmir and will use it as the last option.

Intelligence sources in Srinagar said some militants arrested in the Kashmir valley sometime ago had disclosed during interrogation that Pakistan would intervene militarily in Kashmir if the proxy war did not yield the desired result. This was the last option of the six phase Operation Topac devised by the late Pakistan president Zia-ul Haq, the militants said.

One of the militants, Ghulam Ahmed Malla, divisional administrator of the Hizbul Mujahideen in Kupwara and Baramulla districts, revealed that Pakistan had assured the militants that the first five phases would demoralise the Indian security forces and the army inducing Pakistan to send its armed forces as 'the word of Islam to protect the Kashmiri people.'

Malla was arrested following an encounter at Duligund, 18 km from Baramulla on the Kupwara-Baramulla highway. Another militant, Kak Kotwal, district commander of Anantnag, corroborated Malla's claim.

Pakistan's recent support to the Kashmiri militants, the intelligence sources said, included the setting up of militant training camps within three km of the line of control across the Uri sector in the Kashmir valley and the increasing concentration of militants in the Kupwara jungles. "They can resort to hit and run tactics without ever being caught," the sources added.

Several such incidents occurred in November-December 1996.

The militancy in Kashmir, the sources said, was mired in the third phase of Operation Topac. The fourth and fifth phases would involve infiltration by highly trained, motivated and battle- hardened militants, damaging the Jawahar tunnel on the Jammu -Srinagar national highway and destroying the Srinagar-Jammu and Kargil-Leh highways.

The Jawahar tunnel, which is about 200 km from Srinagar, serves as a link between the Kashmir valley and the rest of India.

The first two phases, the sources disclosed, involved creating disturbances in the Kashmir valley, Doda district and other border areas.

According to the sources, Zia had told his commanders at a meeting in 1988 that the military option should be kept open as a coup de grace.

'In the past we opted for ham-handed military options and failed. So we will keep the military option till the last moment as a coup de grace if and when necessary,' the late dictator is believed to have told his commanders.

The meeting was attended by Pakistani generals and Inter-Services Intelligence officers. It was at this meeting that Operation Topac was devised.

It was also decided to keep a low profile so that India did not find an excuse to pre-empt Pakistan by launching an attack at a location and time of its choice.

It was planned to complete the first phase of the operation in the first two months of 1990, and move on to the next phase at the earliest.

The low intensity form of combat was chosen because Zia felt the Kashmiris had qualities -- shrewdness, intelligence, preserverance and mastery over political intrigue -- which could be exploited.

'We must adopt methods of combat which the Kashmiri mind can grasp and cope with a coordinated use of moral and physical means other than a military operation,' Zia told the commanders, the sources said.

The operation, which was conceived to avenge the dismemberment of Pakistan in 1971, was named after Topac Amru, an Inca prince who fought a non-conventional war against the Spaniards in the 18th century.