Following Governor Jagmohan’s participation in a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs (CCPA)  in New Delhi, and the processions at Rawalpur and Zakura where the police had fired at the unarmed crowds, all parades and pickets, no matter what the occasion or source, were banned. The authorities had initially refrained from taking note of rallies that eventually gathered momentum, and now chose to prohibit them all when they seemed to have established roots. Both phases of official attitude offered opportunities to Pakistan to promote its political and material support to the terrorist-secessionist forces in Kashmir. The difficulties encountered in efforts to return to normality were in part created by this entrenched external dimension, explainable by successive ill considered local policies as much as Pakistan’s motives.

It is not surprising that the number of incidents in 1989 (2154) almost doubled in 1990 (3905)-only to decline in 1991(3122). Terrorism was better organized and progressively funded and nourished from abroad, but the popular outcry began to wane. The terrorists now possessed sophisticated weapons and were better trained but were losing touch with the exhausted public. Only a year ago, the popular upsurge bordered on the maximum. The balance was now reversed. Forceful terrorist networks needed lively popular support to achieve the goal of secession. Pakistan had to revive what was now missing-the people’s backing.

The year 1991 did not bring popular support but disagreements and showdowns among the militants. For instance, a rival group killed a district (Balakot) chief (Muhammad Akbar Zargar) of the Muslim Mujahideen. Although the abduction of the daughter (Nathida Imtiaz) of the National Conference leader Professor Saifuddin Soz secured the release (8 March)[1] of a jailed militant, and the murder of two intellectuals (the veteran freedom-fighter A.S. Ranjoor and the Urdu daily Al-Safa’s editor M.S. Vakil) went unpunished, the Jammu and Kashmir Students’ Liberation Front (JKSLF) appealed to the pro-Pakistani groups to cease illegal operations. While Islamabad diverted more funds and arms to pro-Pakistan factions, there were growing symptoms of disillusionment among the people, who now yearned for a return to normality; that is, an end to violence, and a flow of income from tourism.   

When the Kashmiri authorities decided to reactivate tourism in the Valley, pro-Pakistani militants kidnapped two Swedish engineers employed at the Uri Hydro-Power Project, seven Israeli tourists and a Dutch citizen. With the angry crowds shouting anti-Pakistan slogans, the tide was turning against terrorism and foreign intervention for the first time since the year 1988. The JKLF had to also condemn the abduction of foreign visitors. This new trend did not restrain all of the hardliners, some of whom burnt to death (23 June) three Hindus and tied explosives to the bodies of two Muslims. Although the kidnapping (28 June) of a senior executive of the Indian Oil Corporation (K. Doraiswamy) by the Ikhwan-ul Muslimeen was unpopular with the masses, the militants secured the release of their colleagues including the terrorist (Javed Shalla) accused of the murder of an industrialist and a university administrator. The authorities could not capitalize on the acknowledged deception of the masses even when the Valley residents were weary of unending abductions and bloody rivalries between the militant groups. The successful rescue (18 October) of the Wakholl couple, the wife being a former Tourism Minister in the J&K government, was a victory for the security forces.[2]

The predicament somewhat changed for the better when the 1991 elections brought the Narasimha Rao government to power in New Delhi, the slight switch becoming more visible towards the end of the year. The number of incidents declined considerably, and the security forces killed 17 and captured 31 militants in October 1991 alone. As it frequently happens with a change of government, the newcomers soon blamed their predecessors for failures and made repeated statements that things were improving rapidly. This charge and challenge once more helped the militants to make another comeback. Even the State Director of Police J.N. Saxena was among those injured when a bomb exploded (24 January 1992) in the main security office.[3] The militants were still able to kidnap 64 persons in the first three months of 1992. This temporary upward trend encouraged some Pakistani sponsors to suggest a mass crossing of the Line of Actual Control. Since Pakistan favoured Hizb-ul Mujahideen more than the other analogous organizations, the JKLF supported the idea to outbid its rivals. Lending an ear to intervened and frustrated the border violations at the last moment.

With the year 1992 approaching its end, the demolition of the Babri Masjid at Ayodhya, which sent an exaggerated message all over the world that secularism in India was giving way to an extremist Hindu ideology, helped transform the  semi-sleeping monster of communalism into an uncontrollable epidemic in the streets. The militants in Kashmir damaged a number of Hindu temples. The Rao government’s partial response to strong criticism for its conduct during the riots in the aftermath of the Ayodhya affair was the appointment of a special Minster of Internal Security (Rajesh Pilot) to deal exclusively with Kashmir. Not only was this commissioning a repetition of the former superficial Fernandes experience, it corresponded to the reappointment of General K.V. Krishna Rao to governorship replacing G.C. Saxena. While these assignments were interpreted as part of a softer line policy, Dr. A. A. Guru, known for his close relations with the JKLF and also for his soft line, was kidnapped by the militants (31 March) and found dead the next day.

April 1993 was one of the worst months in the history of terrorism in Kashmir. Not only did 124 persons lose their lives in just three days, but a false rumour that a constable died in army custody caused an angry police procession, after which twenty officers were dismissed for their role in showing disobedience.

April 1993 also witnessed waves of foreign Muslim mercenaries from Afghanistan, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and Sudan coming to the Valley and to the Doda district, where slightly over 40% of the population are Hindus. Reinforced by such well-trained people, the militants established “liberated areas” in parts of Srinagar, Anantnag and Baramulla, targetted checkposts and patrol units, and held some abducted persons (for instance, the former Bihar legislator P.K. Sinha) for almost a year.

Since 1993 the terrorists have been using more sophisticated weapons such as air-to-ground rockets, artillery shells, high-velocity grenades, long-range wireless sets, pen pistols, and telescope-fitted sniper rifles. Even the Secretariat building in Srinagar, which lasted for thirty-two days (15 October-16 November),[4] and managed to hold a public exhibition of some of their sophisticated weaponry near a police picket. Both the terrorists and the officials had drawn  lessons from the Golden Temple catastrophe in Punjab. The militants at Hazratbal surrendered in the end.

The year 1994 saw 85 rocket attacks, 370 kidnappings, 4,000 arrests, and 2,500 dead.[5]The great majority of the last mentioned were militants. The security forces successfully sealed the border along the LAC. New Delhi invited some foreign diplomats and the International Red Cross to visit the Valley. 1995 witnessed more frequent use of remote control devices to detonate explosives, one of which killed (20 March) a Brigade Commander of the Army (V.Gopal Sheridharan). [6] It also marked the possession (December 1994-May 1995) by the Harkat-ul Ansar militants of the shrine of the Sufi saint Nooruddin Noorani at Charar-e Sharif near Srinagar. Harkat-ul Ansar was born out of the merger of two Pakistani political activist movements, and financed mainly by Saudi Arabia and some other Arab Gulf countries. They all sought Kashmir’s accession to Pakistan. Harkat-ul Ansar had several thousand armed men in the Pakistani-held part of Kashmir. The militants under Mast Gul, who killed two securtiy officers for provocation, started a fire in the shrine of this exalted Kashmiri saint. While Mast Gul escaped to Pakistan to received a hero’s welcome there , it became obvious that, after the experience in Punjab, the militants preferred to use shrines to bring about confrontations with the authorities. The capture of a handful of militants not being worth the devastation of a shrine, it could be difficult to dislodge them. The rest of the year saw the kidnapping of four foreign tourists, four local journalists, sixteen forestry technicians and ten others, three of whom were killed.

The total number of incidents of terrorist violence in J&K in the last decade (1998 –June 1999)[7] is 45,852 while about a quarter (11,240) of them are related to explosion and arson. The total number of killings in terrorist violence for the same period is no less than 21,039, about a third (7,672) being Muslims, the latter being more than the Hindus killed (958), some government officials (372), politicians (153) and top political leaders (15). There have been 3,179 cases of kidnappings, the whereabouts of 258 persons being still unknown but 1,222 put on file as killed. Kidnapped individuals include government officials (308), politicians (129), and foreigners (20). Although only a fractions of cases of extortion and lootings are reported to the authorities an account of fear, the number of registered incidents stand at 810, and the amount robbed adds up to 108, 905, 286 rupees. Total incidents of destruction of property by militants add up to 4,974. A great deal of weapons were recovered from militants, including grenades (35,163), grenade launchers (341), explosives (21, 476 kg.), AK series rifles (20,476), snipers (305), pistols (8,179), mines (5,683), rockets (3,106), bombs (1,972), rocket boosters (1,577), rocket launchers (903), guns (1,603), machine guns (1,135), and mortars (127).

Violence perpetrated by terrorists included abductions and killings of targeted prominent personalities, brutalities inflicted on innocent persons, atrocities on women, children, Christian missionary institutions and foreign nationals, attacks on Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and members of the press, robberies, extortions, destruction of property and looting. Torture followed kidnappings, with instances sof gouging out of eyes, breaking of limbs, and slitting of throats until the victims bleed to death. In one incident a terrorist reportedly ate a bit of the victim's flesh. Extortions were as rampant as the rape of women. The lust turned lethal with the discovery of AIDS among some mercenaries. Such distressing stories are discernible in almost every corner of J&K embroiling all spheres and professions, in fact all walks of life, and modifying in the process the entire political life of the land. The incidents occurred in the towns and villages of Srinagar, Anantnag, Baramulla, Doda, Jammu, Kupwara, Poonch, Pulwana, and Rajouri. Instances of open public anger against militant actions have to be mentioned in this description of atrocities against different sections of society.

In the last decade, there have been close to 200 incidents in which prominent personalities were murdered or attakced. Among them were ex-ministers (Abd-ul Jabbar, Hissam-ud Din, Ghulam Hassan Shah), editors of daily newspapers, professors (Abd-ul Ahad Wani, Kundan Lal, Musheer-ul Haq), politicians, professionals, businessmen, human rights activists (H.N. Wanchoo), prominent writers, and poets (Ahmed Din Mushtaq, Nazir Ahmed Hafiz). For instance, Dr. Rubaiya Sayeed, the daughter of the then Union Home Minister, was carried off at gun point. Professor Musheer-ul Haq was kidnapped from the Kashmir University campus and shot dead. Professor K.L. Ganjoo, from the Wadoora Agriculture College, was killed on the river bank. The principal of the (S.S.M) Polytechnic College was abduced, and Professor M.A. Azhari from Kashmir University shot at. The mutilated body of Jalil Indrabi, the Chairman of the Kashmir Commission of Jurists, was recovered from the River Jhelum at Rajbagh. Professor Yusuf-ul Umar, the President of the Iqbal Memorial Trust, was shot at and injured. Even Dr. Farooq Abdullah, several times Chief Minister of J&K, was attacked (in Rajouri on 9 December 1995), and an explosion occurred in the building premises of Dr. A.M. Mattoo, the brother-in-law of Dr. Abdullah.

Innocent people were found hanging from trees, ailing men shot dead in hospitals where they were undergoing treatment, headless bodies with limbs chopped off recovered from rivers, and others dragged from their homes, tortured and slain. Some civilians lost their lives in cross fire from rival militant groups. Many women children were not spared. While talking about virginity and the purdah,[8] the militants displayed no esteem for women. Many maidens and spouses, mostly Muslim, were carried off, tormented in various ways, decapitated, and sexually abused. Some were shot at work places or inside their own homes or burnt to death. Gunmen frequently intruded into private houses and liquidated the whole family including the woman folk and infants. Thugs frequently looted household articles, and at times, entered private homes to open indiscriminate fire or hurl a grenade into the dwellings. The Muslim Kashmiri desperados slices a woman’s breast before shooting her (in Sajithana Mandi, Rajouri on 13 March 1998), and slit the throat of another (in Phagla Surankote, Poonch on 19 June 1998).

Some children were killed on a school compound, and others injured by antipersonnel mines. There were grenade attacks on school buses (in Pulwana on 5 January 1998). More than thirty youngsters were harmed in the Maulana Azad Stadium in Jammu (20 January 1998) when stormier caused three explosions during the Republic Day celebrations. Deranged cutthroats chopped the nose and ears of children before killing them (in Bhatadurian, Poonch on 2 March 1998). A brutal attack on a marriage party (in Doda on 19 June 1998) killed 26 Hindus.[9] The Lassa Sheikh family lost 19 of its members, the killers not moved to compassion even before minors (in Poonch on 3 August 1998).

Explosions were aimed at causing the closure of the Christian missionary schools in Srinagar. The hostel building of the Bisco Memorial School, among others was set on fire, an attempt was made to set ablaze the Burn Hall School, affiliated with the local Catholic mission, and an explosion occurred near the Miss Melanson Girls’ School. American, British, Dutch, French, German, Israeli, Norwegian, and Swedish tourists were abducted, and the bullet-ridden bodies of some of them were later recovered.

On several occasions, the hunters intruded into the J&K Bank, the Central Cooperative Bank, the Rural Development Bank and others to loot money. They attacked post offices and vanished with the cash. They ransacked shops, private homes and mosques and decamped with the contents of the money chests. They carried away, not only gold ornaments and jewellery, but even stone idols of Hindu deities from local temples. At times, armed militants cordoned off the village (in Sangra, Doda on 17 May 1995) and looted all Hindu houses or took away hundreds trucks, ambulances, oil tankers and scooters. Some of these vehicles were loaded with merchandise such as timber, cement, copper, steel rods, silk fabrics, and coal or food like rice, sugar, fruit and the like.

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