Militancy in Kashmir
1965-1966:
Pakistan takes advantage of the discontent in the Kashmir Valley which is partly due to erosion of autonomy and sends in a few thousand armed Pakistani infiltrators across the cease-fire line in August and incidents of violence increase in Kashmir Valley; A full Indo-Pakistani war breaks out which ends in a ceasefire on 23 September.
Pakistan supported guerrilla groups in Kashmir increase their activities after the
ceasefire. Kashmiri nationalists Amanullah Khan and Maqbool Butt form another Plebiscite Front with an armed wing called the Jammu and Kashmir National Liberation Front(NLF) in Azad Kashmir, with the objective of freeing Kashmir from Indian occupation; Butt crosses into the Valley in June 1966 and engages in clashes with the Indian army; He is arrested and sentenced to death in 1968 but escapes to Azad Kashmir with help from the local people.
1971: An Indian Airlines plane, 'Ganga', en route from Srinagar to New Delhi, is hijacked in January and diverted to Lahore and later blown up after allowing passengers to leave; Maqbool Butt claims responsibility.
1976: Maqbool Butt is arrested on his return to the Valley; Amanullah Khan moves to England and NLF becomes Jammu and Kashmir liberation Front(JKLF).
1987:
Amanullah Khan takes refuge in Pakistan, after being deported from England and begins to direct operations across the LoC; Young disaffected Kashmiris in the Valley such as the HAJY group are recruited by JKLF.
1989: Militancy increases with bomb blasts; On 8 December, Rubaiya Sayeed, daughter of the Home Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed is kidnapped by the JKLF; She is released safely on 13 December in exchange for the release of five JKLF leaders.
Kashmiri Pandits Jia Lal Taploo and Neel Kanth Ganjoo are killed by militants, the latter for sentencing Maqbool Butt to death in 1984.
End of Soviet occupation of Afghanistan releases a great deal of militant
energy and weapons to Kashmir. Pakistan provides arms and training to both
indigenous and foreign militants in Kashmir, thus adding fuel to the
smouldering fire of discontent in the valley.
1990:
On 13 February, Lassa Kaul, director of Srinagar Doordarshan, is killed by the
militants for implementing pro-indian media policy.
Though the JKLF tries to explain that the killings of Pandits were not communal, the murders cause a scare among the minority Hindu community. The rise of new militant groups, some warnings in anonymous posters and some unexplained killings of innocent members of the community contribute to an atmosphere of insecurity for the Kashmiri Pandits; The entire Kashmiri Pandit community flee the Valley in March.
1990-2001: An officially estimated 10,000 desperate Kashmiri
youth cross-over to Pakistan for training and procurement of arms.
The indigenous militant groups include the pro-independence JKLF and the pro-Pakistan Hizb-ul-Mujahedin (Hizb); The Hizb which is backed by Pakistan, increases its strength dramatically; The JKLF faction led by Yasin Malik announces unilateral ceasefire in 1994 and pursues political agenda under the APHC (All Parties Hurriyat[Freedom] Conference) umbrella, followed by Amanulla Khan's JKLF faction's ceasefire in 1997; Since 1995, foreign militant outfits with Islamic agenda such as Lashkar-e-Toiba(LeT) and Harkat-ul-Mujahedin have dominated the militancy in Kashmir, besides the indigenous Hizb, all of them under the umbrella United Jehadi Council(UJC); Other indigenous and foreign militant organizations proliferate.
Renegade militants supported by the Indian security forces are used for extrajudicial
executions of militants (besides human right activists, journalists and other civilians) and later conveniently dismissed as "intergroup rivalries". In 1997, the Director General of Police Gurbachan Jagat acknowledges that continued services of the renegades have become counter-productive in view of their excesses; an estimated 5000 renegades are reportedly 'rehabilitated' as Special Police Officers (SPO) in the State police and many others are absorbed in the security forces; The renegades remain the most dreaded group and still engage in excesses.
Though militancy is mainly concentrated in the Valley and is largely non-communal, some militant outfits operate in the Jammu region also and wage a communal campaign; The most serious incident of a communal nature namely the murder of sixteen male Hindus in Kishtwar in August 1993 is condemned by the JKLF and the Hizb; In the Jammu region, Muslims have been targeted more than Hindus and Sikhs; Hindu fundamentalism by the local armed Village Defence Committee (VDC) backed by the Army and terrorism by Muslim insurgents in defense of the Muslim community, have fed each other. Some militant groups with Islamic agenda have attacked women sporadically for not wearing the veil, which has been condemned by the indigenous groups.
In May 1999, the Indian Army patrols detect intruders from Pakistan on Kargil ridges in Kashmir.
India fights to regain lost territory.
In March 2000, unidentified gunmen gun down 36 Sikhs at Chittisinghpora;
Dec 13, 2001: Following the terrorist attacks on the Indian Parliament, India and
Pakistan build up massive troops along the border.
May 14, 2002:: At least 30 people are killed in a terrorist attack on an Indian army camp in Jammu.
May 21, 2002: Abdul Ghani Lone, a leading and popular moderate
Hurriyat leader is assassinated by unidentified gunmen. It is instructive to note that Mirwaiz Maulvi Farooq had been assassinated by unidentified gunmen exactly 12 years back.
Violence and human right violations by militants have been reported since 1989 and still continue.
Human Rights Watch , VIOLATIONS BY MILITANT ORGANIZATIONS
According to official handouts, 6673 civilians and 1593 security personnel had
been killed by the militants, amounting to a total of 19,866 killings as of 1998, including 982 Hindus and Sikhs killed as of 1999.
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Detailed version of the Kashmir Chronology (in draft)