ISI sidelines Hizbul Mujahideen as India's Kashmir strategy cripples terror group

Recently, the ISI got the two outfits together and directed them to carry out rebuilding and orchestrating terror attacks jointly.

However, the Hizbul Mujahideen, which also suffered losses during Operation Sindoo,r has been kept out of almost all processes.

Despite it being a homegrown terror outfit, the ISI wants to keep it out of all operations.

A counterterrorism expert says that this strategy is deliberate. The ISI has started to realise that the locals in Jammu and Kashmir are not inclined towards violence any longer. This has led to a major drop in the number of local terrorists.

While the issue of overground workers does exist in Jammu and Kashmir, recruitments have slowed down largely.

Post the abrogation of Article 370 by the Narendra Modi government, the security forces have been operating with a free hand, and this has led to the neutralisation of many terrorists. The operations have not just targeted terrorists, but their ideological and logistical networks. With separatism almost coming to a close, there is no one to instigate the youth into taking up arms or indulging in stone pelting.

This separatist network was the backbone of the Hizbul Mujahideen, and with the ecosystem dead, the outfit would find it very hard to make a comeback in the Valley.

Further, the manner in which the Indian security forces wiped out the entire leadership in Jammu and Kashmir in hardly anytime, the new recruitments have gone down largely as none subscribe to this outfit.

They have started to realise that the Syed Salahuddin-led outfit is a weak one.

In recent times, the ISI has urged the Hizbul Mujahideen to carry out a propaganda drive online. However, this has failed to gain much traction in the Valley. It had even made calls to the youth of Kashmir to join the outfit and revive it, but the response was very cold, an Intelligence Bureau official said.

While the Jaish and the Lashkar have been the biggest threats in the Valley, agencies say that the Hizbul Mujahideen was a more dangerous force. It was capable of recruiting with ease, and its ideology rang a bell with the youth.

Another official said that the entire command structure of the outfit was wiped out in very little time. This has played on the psychology of the youth who have now realised that the life span of a terrorist is very low and hence joining the Hizbul Mujahideen makes no sense.

Officials contend that the youth have realised that there is no future in this business.

The ISI realises that all attempts that the Hizbul Mujahideen is making in Jammu and Kashmir have been futile. Hence, it feels that having the Hizbul Mujahideen alongside the Jaish and the Lashkar would be more detrimental rather than beneficial, counterterrorism experts say.

Another major reason why the Hizbul Mujahideen has failed is because it is unable to drum up a narrative of discrimination and mindless killings by the Indian state. If one takes note of the recent operations that the security forces have carried out, then they have been clean ones. This meant minimising the collateral damage, while also enhancing surveillance.

Today, the reliance is more on human intelligence, and this has become strong thanks to the support of the local communities. The locals are today more loyal to the security forces as they have realised that the clean-up of J&K has, in fact, been more beneficial for them.

Issues such as discrimination and the need for autonomy are not issues that the Hizbul Mujahideen can raise any longer. This has made the group completely ineffective, as a result of which the ISI is not granting the outfit any major role.

An Intelligence Bureau official said that the ISI is likely to tell the Hizbul Mujahideen operatives to work with the Lashkar and the Jaish, but will not allow it to function independently. Traction is something that the Hizbul Mujahideen is incapable of, and hence it would remain in the background for a long time, the official also added.

- IANS