An official said that post the abrogation of Article 370, separatism in Kashmir ended. While inclusiveness was one of the main reasons for separatism to die, a host of money laundering cases also marked the end of the problem.
While Pakistan has made constant efforts to keep terrorism alive in Jammu and Kashmir, it, however, realised the presence of separatists in the Valley was equally important. Separatists drove the ideology, and this led to the youth taking up arms.
The Indian agencies have focused largely on keeping separatism at bay as it is linked to terror-related activities in the Valley. An official investigating the Faridabad module said that their probe found that serious attempts were being made to revive separatism in the Valley. The various raids that have been conducted in Jammu and Kashmir have led to the seizure of incriminating material, which included literature of banned separatist outfits.
Mufti Irfan Ahmed, the mastermind of the Faridabad module, during his interrogation, said that attempts were being made to revive separatism in Jammu and Kashmir. The police have found plenty of material suggesting the same. The idea was to take Jammu and Kashmir to the pre-2019 days, where separatists were thriving in the Valley.
These persons were instrumental in ensuring that the youth took up arms. They would also give calls every Friday to indulge in stone pelting. Further, separatists would also urge the youth to attend the funerals of terrorists in large numbers and make them martyrs. With now separatism gone, the number of recruitments into terror groups such as the Jaish-e-Mohammed, Lashkar-e-Taiba or Hizbul Mujahideen has gone down considerably.
An Intelligence Bureau official explained that the end of separatism meant the end of the ideology. There is no one to instigate the youth to take up arms. The Indian government has instead been insisting that the youth of Kashmir indulge in constructive activities. Further, there has been a major push by the government, which has revived tourism in a big way. The Pahalgam attack was staged by Pakistan to scare away the tourists, and it did work briefly.
When the separatists were around, they would carry out the agenda of Pakistan for huge sums of money. Their brief was to keep Jammu and Kashmir on the boil and also ensure more persons took up arms.
During the probe, the agencies have found that the members of the Faridabad module had planned on launching a massive campaign across Jammu and Kashmir to spread the separatist ideology. Posters, propaganda material, among others, were all prepared by the module members. They had planned on distributing pamphlets across the Union Territory to brainwash the youth.
Further, they were also in the process of putting up posters praising the separatists and also calling for the return of stone pelting following the prayers every Friday. Another official said that there was a sustained effort being made by these module members to start a massive drive calling for the return of separatism. Mufti Irfan was leading this charge, and he had planned on organising a meeting comprising large gatherings where the separatist ideology would be preached.
Further proof of the Faridabad module trying to revive separatism was found during a raid at Pulwama on Sunday. The Jammu and Kashmir police seized incriminating material, including posters and literature of banned separatist outfits. The police are now carrying out a detailed scrutiny of the seized material. All indications are that a major drive was on to revive separatism in the Valley, a police official said.
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