The mass murder of seven members of a Kashmiri Pandit family at village Sangrampora in Badgam district last Saturday has come as a severe blow to any prospects of the return of the Pandit community to their home and hearth. These killings, at the hands of unknown assassins, have come close on the heels of Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah requesting the migrants to return back and not wait for the last gun to fall dead.
The government has been trying to create an atmosphere of confidence among the migrants and has also declared financial support of one lakh rupees to each migrant family that decides to return to the valley. Most of the leaders of the Pandit community are highly critical of the latest efforts of the state government to get the migrants back. These leaders argue that while the law and order situation is far from satisfactory for a return, the administration is, according to their leaders, trying to create a false impression that things are improving in the valley.
While the security forces have been doing their best to contain militancy, the separatists appear to be desperately trying to upset official efforts. The intelligence pools of the security agencies have improved of late, but their is a growing impression that the influx of foreigners is helping generate a situation where the insurgency cauldron can be kept boiling even without the support of the local militants, whose numbers have been coming down.
The command of some of the most lethal militant outfits like the Harkat-ul-Ansar, the Lashkar-e-Toiba and the Tahreek-ul-Mujahideen has already fallen into the hands of foreign militants. The stakes of these militants in the situation are virtually zero, given the fact that they are battle-hardened and do not have any kith or kin to worry about when they ambush the security forces in the valley.
Many separatist leaders here are also feeling uncomfortable since they are finding it increasingly difficult to control the foreign element that is now moving centrestage from being a fringe influence till last year.
Even the senior officials of the security units in the valley accept this fact and agree that the latest number of engagements with the separatists also bring out the fact that except for acting as guides, the local militants do not have much to do with such engagements.
Obviously, the casualty figures for the last fortnight also confirm the impression that most of the shots here now are being called by battle-hardened foreign militants.
