The Role of Pakistan and China in Recent Terror Attacks in India’s Kashmir Region: A Comprehensive Analysis by an Expert
The axis wants to force India to shift troops from India–China border and engage them to counter terrorists.
Terrorists killed four Indian soldiers on Dec. 21 in an ambush in India’s Poonch-Rajouri region, on its northwestern border with Pakistan. The difficult, densely forested Himalayan terrain in Jammu and Kashmir has recently seen an intensified terrorist presence and anti-India operations.
It was the sixth attack on the Indian military forces in the region since October 2021, reported the Hindustan Times. India Today reported on Monday that New Delhi plans to increase troop strength on this front to strengthen its counter-terrorism operations. A new brigade of troops was brought in a few months ago and another is scheduled to be brought in soon.
An Indian counter-terrorism expert and the author of a new book on terrorism in the region told The Epoch Times that behind the increasing attacks is the strengthening China-Pakistan axis.
“After Galwan, India moved a portion of its battle-hardened, premier counterinsurgency troops, [the] Rashtriya Rifles. This has brought a huge chunk of Indian forces on the eastern border [with China],” said Abhinav Pandya, author of the just-released book “Terror Financing in Kashmir” (Routledge, Taylor and Francis).
The Rashtriya Rifles (RR) is a special counter-insurgency force deployed on India’s northern borders with Pakistan in the west and China in the east. The bloody Galwan conflict in the trans-Himalayan altitudes of Ladakh left 20 Indian soldiers and an undisclosed number of Chinese dead in June 2020. The aftermath of the event saw fresh military build-up on both sides.
“The Chinese are already feeling the heat after Galwan. They have failed in all their pressure tactics, psy-wars and propaganda wars, so now they have used their proxy, Pakistan, to intensify terrorism in Poonch Rajouri, so that RR troops are shifted back to [the] Poonch-Rajouri region [from the Ladakh border],” said Mr. Pandya.
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The developing scenario is tough because the terrain is mountainous, with natural caves that give cover to terrorists. This helps them to plan and conduct surprise attacks and inflict more casualties. Mr. Pandya said the enhanced operations and the way they are being conducted indicate the terrorists have “excellent intelligence” on the movement of Indian armed personnel in the area.
“Apart from that, these attacks also show that some of these militants are highly trained. They have rigorous training in jungle warfare, close-combat drills, and some of them may be veterans in the Pakistani army, also which cannot be ruled out,” according to Mr. Pandya, who is the CEO of the Usanas Foundation, an India-based security affairs think tank.
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