New Delhi: Just a month before the spate of civilian killings began in Kashmir in early October, The Resistance Front (TRF), an offshoot of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, circulated a document listing out the “strategy” on how to “target and boycott non-locals in the Valley, locally as well as militarily”, ThePrint has learnt.
The TRF has taken responsibility for a number of killings that took place in the first week of October.
According to the document, released through the messaging app Telegram and a VPN-protected blog called ‘Kashmir Fight’ online in September, the TRF threatened to not only target civilians who help non-locals in their business, or give them a place to stay, but also officials in the administration helping non-locals get a domicile certificate.
ThePrint has a copy of the document.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has now taken note of the document, and is trying to trace the handles through which it was shared.
According to a source in the security establishment, the blog originated in Pakistan and was then circulated digitally to all over-ground workers (OGWs). It was also circulated to new recruits.
The document speaks about how the “revised land law bill”, according to which non-locals can now buy land in J&K, “should be opposed”.
“Non-locals who have been provided with a new domicile certificate should be considered as an enemy of JK and he/she will be responsible for his/her life,” it says.
It further asks all Kashmiri locals to “keep vigil” that “no land area is provided to non-locals especially to those who want to establish any sort of entrepreneurship with any local person”.
It calls for even J&K Police personnel involved in “anti-Kashmir struggle activities” to be considered as enemies and “dealt with accordingly”.
Speaking about the recent raids by the NIA to detain OGWs, the document says “all will be dealt with an iron hand”.
“Whosoever is assisting these NIA officials shall be hunted down. The armed and resistance groups should target these agencies through whatsoever resources they can,” it says.
Speaking to ThePrint, a senior official in the security establishment said Lashkar-e-Taiba is “trying hard to gather local support”.
“This is a desperate move and they have been following this strategy for a long time. For them, non-locals are easy targets. They had resorted to this strategy even after abrogation of Article 370 and gunned down labourers working in the apple mandis. All the agencies are working together for this operation and have detained over 800 people,” the source said. “Since these men are now leaderless after the death of their commanders in encounters, they are unable to launch an attack on the security forces and are getting desperate. Hence, these attacks on non-locals.”
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Officials, police on ‘enemy list’
According to the document, non-locals should be “rejected” by all Kashmiris, and whoever tries to help them would be in the “enemy list”.
“Whosoever will be proven involved in allotting land to any non-local will be considered as enemy of Kashmir. Even those officials no matter who they are, those who sign the documents or carry forward the files will come in this enemy list,” it reads.
It also states that the J&K Police was “lured with rewards and awards” to carry out operational activities against Kashmiris, and its personnel are also targets.
The document also says the properties of “occupational forces”, especially the Jammu and Kashmir Police, shall be “targeted particularly of those who are actively taking part in anti-Kashmir struggle activities”.
It also calls for an attack on the homes of IPS and IAS officers working in the Valley.
“If strategy demands, then the Kashmir resistance struggle will be taken outside Kashmir especially to those parts in India where IPS and IAS officials (who work in the Valley) come from,” it adds. “When the surroundings (area of their actual place of livings) of these brutal IAS and IPS officers bleed, only then will these brutal officers feel the pain of local Kashmiris.”
‘Oppose college admissions of non-locals’
The document further says that admissions of non-locals in education institutions “should be opposed tooth and nail”.
“The occupational Indian regime has already started using universities and colleges for their vicious and anti-Kashmir designs. They have started admitting non-local students and even non-local staff in these institutions (around 85% of students selected in Central University are non-Kashmiris). So at student-level organisations, these selections should be opposed tooth and nail while for the sake of Kashmir cause, these selections will be opposed on armed struggle level,” it says.
(Edited by Arun Prashanth)
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