Arun Joshi

Tribune News Service

Jammu, July 22

The Pakistan army has stepped up its campaign on Kashmir ahead of the first anniversary of scrapping of Article 370 of J&K with a clearly stated objective to stir emotions and street turbulence in the Valley that is fighting Covid-19 with its back to wall.

The Indian side has watched closely the designs being prepared by the Pakistan army to cause trouble in the Valley. It has prepared its own plans to deflate Pakistani designs with extra vigil and the strengthening of the intelligence network.

The alarm bells started ringing louder when Corps Commanders of the Pakistan army met at GHQ, Rawalpindi, on Tuesday evening to deliberate upon what it called to review the internal and external security threats and brought Kashmir into picture with a straight reference to August 5 move of the Indian Government to do away with the special status of Jammu and Kashmir state and bifurcating it into two Union Territories of Ladakh and J&K.

The DG, ISPR, Major General Asif Gafoor, said in a tweet that the Corps Commanders’ forum took a “special note of continued atrocities” in the Indian part of J&K as “illegal actions of August 5, 2019, complete one-year next month, forum paid rich tributes to brave Kashmirs for their legitimate struggle for freedom.”

Kashmir has become a consistent theme of the Pakistan establishment of which the Pakistan army is the most important and leading partner, especially in the post August 5, 2019, period.

Pakistan has been trying to stir trouble in the Valley in the run-up to August 5, aligning itself with the voices from the Valley that have spoken of restoration of statehood and its special status.

There are indeed reservations about these issues in the Valley and Pakistan is making all efforts, with its army leading the campaign to foment trouble in the region. Its frustrations have grown as Kashmiris have resisted all the instigations to fill the streets and clash with security forces.

Observers feel that the Kashmiris have learnt from their experience not to lose lives in the street protests as at the end of the day these deliver nothing but deaths, destruction and more graves.