Kashmir: a simmering, sometimes brutal small war

[carl]

THE INDIAN APPROACH TO COUNTERINSURGENCY OPERATIONS

Colonel Behram A Sahukar, The Parachute Regiment, Indian Army retired

This was a good piece. It was easy to read and gave good review of all the small wars ops the Indian Army has been involved in, and there have been a lot. It had almost no acronyms! Imagine that, plain English that anybody can follow. Its free on the net.

Gurkha: Do you have a link for "Doctrine for sub-Conventional Operations"?

[Gurkha]

This was a good piece. It was easy to read and gave good review of all the small wars ops the Indian Army has been involved in, and there have been a lot. It had almost no acronyms! Imagine that, plain English that anybody can follow. Its free on the net.

Gurkha: Do you have a link for "Doctrine for sub-Conventional Operations"?

Try
http://ids.nic.in/doctrine.htm

[JMA]

Try
http://ids.nic.in/doctrine.htm

I'm getting a corrupt file message

[davidbfpo]

Gurkha posted a link to Indian doctrine in these matters:http://ids.nic.in/doctrine.htm

I'm getting a corrupt file message

It loaded here and then announced 'Failed to load PDF document'

[davidbfpo]

An excellent article in a hitherto unknown Indian magazine 'The Caravan' in September; hat tip to two "lurkers":http://www.caravanmagazine.in/reportage/departed

The article is based on interviewing several returnees, alongside a general commentary.

[carl]

David:

You were right. That is an excellent article.

One of its themes in stated in this sentence.

"Many others grew disillusioned with the harsh realities of a freedom struggle run by Pakistani intelligence, which showed little concern for the independence or freedom of Kashmiris."

That seems to be a fairly common sentiment among those forced to work with the Pak Army/ISI. Nobody likes those guys. I wonder why we haven't tried hard to take more advantage of that over the years. Just another in a list of things that seem obvious but we never seemed to do.

[Dayuhan]

Just another in a list of things that seem obvious but we never seemed to do.

When things that seem obvious aren't done, two immediate possibilities spring to mind:

1. Those in charge are complete idiots and incapable of seeing or doing the obvious.

2. Maybe things aren't so obvious as they seem. There may be factors in the picture that you aren't seeing.

Always worth considering the possibility that #2 is in play. Any time things seem simple and obvious it's worth taking a much closer look.

[Ray]

An excellent article in a hitherto unknown Indian magazine 'The Caravan' in September; hat tip to two "lurkers":http://www.caravanmagazine.in/reportage/departed

The article is based on interviewing several returnees, alongside a general commentary.

The Govt has a scheme to rehabilitate the ex militants.

Apart from that there are many 'reluctant' militants, in that they were 'shanghaied' while young and taken across, many against their will. Many such columns of young school children being taken across have been apprehended in the past. One such column was apprehended during my time.

I have interacted with militants who have returned to India and they were quite disillusioned with Pakistan and in what is called by Pakistan as Azad Kashmir, where because they observed that instead of Kashmiris ruling the so called Azad Kashmir, they AK Govt was being run by Pakistan and it administrators with a figurehead Kashmiri.

They also felt that Pakistan was not interested in an independent Kashmir and were merely using them, the Kashmiris, so that they could annex Kashmir and make it a part of Pakistan.

Also, they felt that modernity was there in India but not in the so called Azad Kashmir.

And their biggest worry was that as a part of Pakistan, the Kashmiris would lose their identity, which they have in India since the Valley is predominantly Muslim and hence their singular character was up front and recognised and would not be diluted owing to the provisions of the Indian Constitution wherein in non Kashmiris cannot buy land or settle down in Kashmir and that way the Kashmiri character would be in perpetuity, but would not be so in the so called Azad Kashmir, where all are Muslims in Pakistan and hence the bargaining power would not be there.

[Ray]

You may like to read Dr Shabir Choudhry's blogs:http://drshabirchoudhry.blogspot.co.uk/

Dr Shabir Choudhry was born in Nakker Shamali (near Panjeri) in District Bhimber, Azad Kashmir. He went to UK in 1966, and holds a dual nationality. He left secondary school in 1970 with no qualifications. In 1975 he started part time studies and passed Matriculation from Panjeri, passed ‘O’ and ‘A’ levels from UK, and resumed full time degree course and passed BA (Hons) in 1984. He was awarded Mphil and PGCE in 1990 and PhD in 2002. At present he is self - employed, provides private tuition, translation/ interpretation and consultancy. Dr Shabir Choudhry has done extensive research on the issue of Kashmir and Indo Pakistan relations. He is founder member of JKLF and became its Secretary General in 1985, and got elected President of JKLF and Europe in 1999. At present, he is: • He is author of more than 25 books and booklets in English on various aspects of the Kashmiri struggle. • Through out his adult life he has actively worked for Kashmir cause, and for peace and Rights Movement in Kashmir and South Asia. • Also he regularly takes part in proceedings of UN Human Rights Council and has attended various International conferences on Kashmir.

JKLF is a militant organisation and he is a member of the same.