Word: kashmir
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...group is based in Kashmir, the land that India and Pakistan have been clashing over since Partition in 1947. Estimates differ, but somewhere near half a million people may have died in massacres and pogroms in the year following the division of Pakistan and India. Whole communities of Sikhs, Hindus, and Muslims were slaughtered, and the streets of Delhi ran with blood, as William Dalrymple writes in his history of the city, “City of Djinns.” In 1984, when Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards after ordering a raid on the religion?...
Despite the news, there seems to be a consensus within Kashmir - among government and intelligence officials, separatist leaders, local civil society groups and experienced observers of the Kashmir conflict - that there is no direct link between militants active in Kashmir and the ones who planned and executed the brutal Mumbai attacks. "It's like al-Qaeda talking about the Palestinian issue," says one longtime analyst of Kashmiri politics. "It's just a cover." And some local activists fear the Mumbai terrorists may have hurt the cause of Kashmiri independence. Says one: "People are not happy about having Kashmir being dragged...
...fearsome technique used in Mumbai - a combination of machine-gun-firing and grenade-throwing - is familiar in Kashmir, and known here as a "fidayeen" attack. But Kashmiri journalists and political activists note that militants here typically target symbols of the Indian state, not public places. The city of Srinagar, a hill station that was once a magnet for tourists escaping India's summer heat, is blotted with blackened government buildings burned out in fidayeen attacks...
While the tactics may have been perfected here, Ashok Bhan, director of police intelligence in Kashmir, says he does not think there were any operational links between Mumbai and Kashmir. "Big operations like this would not be planned in India," he says. That doesn't mean LeT has disappeared from the area. There have been at least 35 suspected terrorists who have crossed the border from Pakistan over the last few months - and about as many who have been killed by Indian troops, Bhan says, but he says he has seen no evidence of any unusual activity. The increase...
Still, there is little that's known for certain about the Mumbai attacks, and authorities in Kashmir have not ruled out any possibilities. The unusual nature of the attack - fidayeen tactics but without a clear ideology - and its logistical sophistication suggest that more than one group may have been involved. Sudhir Bloeria, a senior advisor to the governor of the state, says that while the Kashmir militancy may be on the wane, the Mumbai attacks have prompted officials in the state to look more closely at the connections among the various groups operating in the area, including LeT. "Mumbai adds...