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Amit Shah asks JKP to use names of Pak-based terror groups not Valley affiliates

Albeit mere derivatives of Lashkar and Jaish, the so-called new outfits have been created to spread the narrative that jihad against Indian forces had spread in the Valley and that the entire violent movement was locally sponsored with homegrown jihadists.

Published on: May 17, 2022, 12:24:51 IST
By , Hindustan Times, New Delhi
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Union home minister Amit Shah has directed Jammu and Kashmir Police and the security agencies to refrain from using names of new terror outfits in Jammu and Kashmir as they were only derivatives of Pakistan-based globally proscribed groups and designed by Rawalpindi to spread the narrative of home-grown terror in the Valley.

File photo of Union home minister Amit Shah in Jammu and Kashmir.
File photo of Union home minister Amit Shah in Jammu and Kashmir.

The home minister’s directions came after the intelligence inputs indicated that Pakistani ISI wanted terrorist groups like Lasker-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) not to take credit for any strikes in the UT, perhaps due to pressure from Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and allow the new spawns to claim responsibility for any successful terror attacks. While LeT has been asked by ISI to maintain a low profile, the Jaish has intensified its focus on the Sialkot-Shakargarh sector as well as the Bhimber-Samani sector with increased infiltration and violence against innocents in the name of Islamic Jihad.

While the ISI under what is called “Project Eastwala” is trying to re-energize 1990s terror outfits like Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HuM) and Harkat-ul-Jihad-e-Islami (HuJI), the UT of Jammu and Kashmir has seen a spurt of new terror outfits like The Resistance Front, Tehreek-e-Millat-e-Islami, Ansar Ghawat-ul-Hind and Jammu and Kashmir Ghaznavi Force. Albeit mere derivatives of Lashkar and Jaish, the so-called new outfits have been created to spread the narrative that jihad against Indian forces had spread in the Valley and that the entire violent movement was locally sponsored with homegrown jihadists. These outfits have been created out of erstwhile terror elements who had undergone terror training in Pakistan in the past and were not active on account of having been arrested and released after serving jail sentences or were exposed to the security agencies.

A part of the new terror strategy is the use of explosive-laden drones to carry out direct attacks on targets with a payload capacity of over 5 kilograms and with a range of over three kilometres.

It is understood that while recently conducting the security review of J&K, HM Shah said that the names of original Pakistan-based terror groups should be taken by the police and security agencies so that the world is aware of the role that Pakistan is playing in promoting jihad in the UT.

While the BSF has been directed to counter the deadly challenge of drone shipments from across the border, the fact is that the para-military force does not have enough anti-drone systems despite repeated drone sightings. The weapon and explosive carrying Chinese drones not only totally gives deniability to Pakistan but also saves lives of trained Islamic jihadists from the bullet of Indian security forces.

  • Shishir Gupta
    ABOUT THE AUTHOR
    Shishir Gupta

    Shishir Gupta is Executive Editor at Hindustan Times and one of India's top journalists covering national security, strategic affairs, foreign policy and geopolitics. Over the past three decades, he has extensively reported on India's military, diplomatic and security landscape, covering every major conflict and national security challenge, from the 1999 Kargil War and the 2020 East Ladakh standoff to Operation Sindoor in 2025. He has also covered major terror attacks, including the IC-814 hijacking, the 26/11 Mumbai attacks and the 2025 Pahalgam terror strike, along with numerous Pakistan-backed terrorist incidents in the Kashmir Valley and across India. He has reported on national and state elections for more than three decades. A recognised authority on strategic affairs, Gupta has covered India's nuclear programme since the Pokhran-II (Shakti series) tests in May 1998 and has written extensively on global nuclear issues, Indian diplomacy and the country's expanding global outreach. He has also reported widely on international conflicts and terrorism, with a special focus on the Indian subcontinent. Gupta has interviewed Prime Minister Narendra Modi more than four times, including Modi's first interview with the print media after becoming Prime Minister in May 2014. His other interviews include three with the Dalai Lama, as well as conversations with Benjamin Netanyahu, Amit Shah, Yogi Adityanath, S. Jaishankar, Nirmala Sitharaman and Piyush Goyal. He is the author of Indian Mujahideen: The Enemy Within (Hachette, 2011) and Himalayan Face-off: Chinese Assertion and Indian Riposte (Hachette, 2014). He was awarded the Chevening-Wolfson Joint Scholarship at Wolfson College, University of Cambridge, UK, in 1998 and participated in the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) of the US State Department in 2006. He received the Ben Gurion Prize from Israel in 2011 and the K. Subrahmanyam Prize for Strategic Studies in 2015 from the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA). Since 2024, he has hosted Point Blank, Hindustan Times' weekly YouTube show on global geopolitics.Read More