After Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan's visit to Washington and US President Donald Trump's offer of mediation in Kashmir, experts and political activists predict that Islamabad may activate terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir to destabilise the region.
Sources reveal that terror launch pads in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK), which were dismantled and pushed back to the interiors, have now been activated. Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) chief Masood Azhar's brother Ibrahim Azhar has been relocated to PoK to oversee the affairs.
However, to tackle the situation, India has deployed as many as 28,000 troops of the Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) in Kashmir valley, in addition to the 10,000 troops which were deployed there last week.
Reacting on the prevailing situation, Shabir Choudhry, a writer and political activist from PoK said, "Possible troop movement will put enormous pressure on the Pakistani economy and government to give an appropriate response to India. Pakistan will not be in a position to do that. They can activate their 'jihadi' troops, and commit acts of terrorism (in Kashmir)".
Recently, while speaking at the United States Institute for Peace, Khan admitted that about 30,000 to 40,000 terrorists who had trained and fought in Afghanistan and Jammu and Kashmir were presently living in his country.
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Junaid Qureshi, Director of Amsterdam-based European Foundation for South Asian Studies (EFSAS) said, "Khan's asseverations lead to some very significant conclusions about the Pakistani government and its policy towards terrorism".
He added, "Given the country's inglorious track record in stoking terrorism in the region, especially in Jammu and Kashmir, and the Army's institutional interests, the limited actions projected as having been taken recently by Pakistan against specific terrorist outfits, which are for all intents and purposes proxies created and nurtured by it, are merely symbolic and this situation will change and revert 'back to business as usual' once the international pressure subsides".
Pakistan has been misusing the PoK territory as a launching pad of terrorists against India, said Sardar Shaukat Ali Kashmiri, the Chairman of United Kashmir People's National Party.
"Pakistan is the hub and breeding ground for scores of Islamist terrorist outfits used by the Pakistan Army in launching terrorist attacks in Jammu and Kashmir," he said.
He added, "There is no doubt that terrorist infrastructure is very much intact in Pakistani occupied Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan and so-called leaders of banned terrorist groups are roaming freely and they have full support and protection of military and its agencies".
"They are recruiting youth for so-called holy war in Kashmir and terrorist activities in the region," said Shaukat Kashmir, who hails from PoK and is now living in exile in Switzerland.
As US President Donald Trump showed his keenness for mediation in Kashmir during the Pakistani Prime Minister's visit to Washington, experts believe that Pakistan Military establishment knows that America will not formally mediate or arbitrate in the Kashmir issue.
Playing up the issue of Kashmir internationally and with the US, they believe, is a good optic and PR as it falls in line with Pakistan's rhetoric on Kashmir and satisfies local sentiments and demands in Pakistan itself.
"It also is a message to its proxies - terrorist organisations and separatists in the Kashmir Valley - that it has not abandoned the issue of Kashmir completely despite international pressure, said Qureshi.
"Pakistan knows very well that especially after the signing of the Simla agreement, the Kashmir issue was made a bilateral one, to be mutually resolved between the two countries, and thereby took it out of the purview of the UN or any other third party (country) mediation, yet such diplomatic rhetoric suits the army and is used over and over again to deceive sections of the population of Jammu and Kashmir," he added.
Sardar Shaukat Kashmiri said, "Legally, Pakistan has no locus standi on Jammu and Kashmir, according to UN resolutions on Jammu & Kashmir, they have to withdraw their troops and citizen from the state who entered J & K for the purpose of fighting".
"From the last 72 years, Pakistan did not comply with UN resolution of Jammu and Kashmir and is trying to legitimise its occupation of so-called Azad Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan," he also stated.
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