Hyderabad: As India moves towards military theatre commands from its existing functional command set-up, strong justification may soon emanate for a separate theatre command for Kashmir, in the backdrop of the changed reality after the American withdrawal from Afghanistan takes place months from now.
According to military sources, a separate command for Kashmir is already being contemplated in the ongoing theatre command effort led by Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat.
The Kashmir theatre will have a unified structure that will have both army and IAF assets including force multipliers like attack helicopters, fighter aircraft, and heavy calibre artillery guns, for in the times to come, India will need all it can field to fight forces of terror in Kashmir.
The reverberations of a US withdrawal from Afghanistan will be strongly felt in Kashmir, which may see more violence, become more unsettled and insecure. This will be because well-trained and battle-hardened foreign fighters will be sought to be pushed into Kashmir under the active support and guidance of Pakistan.
This will happen primarily because Pakistan will be left free to focus on its eastern front (which is with India) as the western front facing Afghanistan will most likely have a friendly Taliban government in Kabul. Even at this point of time, the Taliban controls at least 70 per cent of the territory in Afghanistan.
“It is just a question of time now when Taliban assumes power in Kabul which means Pakistan will have an upper hand. Therefore, Pakistan’s emphasis on its western front will reduce. The ISI (Pakistan secret agency) will be able to control and guide the movement of fighters towards India and Kashmir in a far more effective manner. So, troubles in Kashmir will increase,” says Brigadier CS Sandhu (retired), former director, former Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), India’s external intelligence agency.
In its west, Pakistan is battling certain extremist groups under Operation ‘Zarb-e-Azb’ which has now been replaced with Operation ‘Radd-ul-Fasaad’. Pakistan will, therefore, be able to totally focus its energies on its eastern front with India. And with thousands of jobless mercenaries, finding fodder for a 'jihad' in Kashmir will be very easy for Pakistan.
It is an open secret that the Pakistani deep state enjoys a very close rapport with the Taliban to the extent that a Taliban-led government can be considered as an extension of the Pakistani deep state in its western frontier.
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Afghanistan is already home to lakhs of fighters belonging to various militias either owing allegiance to religious sects or to ethnic groups.
All this while, with President Ghani’s waning stature, India may have to lay its bets on Abdullah Abdullah, a Tajik, who is an important leader of the Northern Alliance which has been actively backed by Iran.
