'Pahalgam attack has a Hamas footprint'

'It was inspired by the Hamas attack and was like their attack -- well planned and well executed.'

A week ago, honeymooners, families, couples, on a holiday to Kashmir were gunned down in cold blood in Pahalgam. Survivors recount horrific tales of shots ringing out, of men being shot after asking their religion, of escaping on the backs of brave Kashmiri locals and of serendipitous events that led to missing the massacre by slim margins.

India, meanwhile, has made the required moves, cancelling Pakistani visas, holding the Indus Waters Treaty, closure of checkpost at Attari among others, while Pakistan has raged about an ‘act of war’ retaliation and a testing of missiles.

The silver lining is of course, a return of tourists to Kashmir, even to the Baisaran Meadow, where the killings took place.

“I am surprised at the security failure given that it was such a isolated spot,” says Shesh Paul Vaid, a Jammu and Kashmir cadre Indian Police Service officer, who served in different capacities in the most volatile areas of the Kashmir valley from 1988. “But no terror attack in Kashmir can take place without local support. Pakistanis cannot do it on their own,” he adds.

In the second part of the interview with Swarupa Dutt/Rediff.com, Vaid, former director general of police of Jammu and Kashmir, a recipient of several gallantry awards and the man who was tasked with containing the violence in the Valley after Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist Burhan Wani's killing in 2016, says the attack was Pakistan’s reaction to the normalcy that had returned to the Valley after the abrogation of Article 370.

Read the first of the interview here. 

After the abrogation of Article 370 Kashmir was considered safer, tourists returned, which in itself is a symbol of normalcy. By targeting tourists is there a message being sent to India?

The message coming from India to Pakistan was of prosperity. India was showing huge development, India was saying peace has returned to Kashmir. Industry and investments were coming to J-K. We have three airports in J-K, whereas PoK doesn’t have even one. There are 12 medical colleges in J&K, PoK doesn’t even have a good hospital.

The Pakistanis and people in PoK are watching everything on social media, so there's a lot of disgruntlement across PoK which of course is called Azad Kashmir by Pakistan. But there is no azaadi there; here you can get away with abusing even the highest post in the land.

So, people there were getting disgruntled with the Pakistani establishment and to assuage that feeling, Pakistan launched the attack here -- the level of violence was indicated the moment Pak army chief Asim Munir took charge. They sent commandos in the Jammu region, we have seen a lot of casualties in the Indian Army, the police and civilian killings in Rajouri, Poonch, Kathua, Doda, and now Kashmir, which was relatively calm, suddenly sees this huge incident.

I feel the incident was Pakistan’s effort to counter the feeling that peace had returned to the Valley after the abrogation. It could not be digested by Pakistan. They invested decades in Kashmir and they will not allow it to slip from their fingers like sand.

You think that the government was lulled into complacency because they felt normalcy was returning to Kashmir?

There has been a lot of improvement in security in Kashmir, but definitely complacency set in. Today there is no stone pelting, no hartals. The financial backing of terrorism has been almost decimated. Lot of positive things were happening and that is why so much tourism was taking place.

Pakistan did not like this and that's why they were looking for an opportunity. And they found one.

There was absolutely no security at such a popular tourist spot? Isn’t that a huge lapse?

I am also surprised given that it is such an isolated spot. There should have been armed personnel. And I’m told there was a nearby army camp, which gave the place a false sense of security. There were also long-range patrols of the CAPF which used to go in the morning and evening to the area, which is why the terrorists chose the afternoon when no armed personnel was there. And there's no road connectivity, so many people bled to death before they could reach a hospital.

Every time something like this happens, security is stepped up. But after a couple of months, we pull back when things settle down, Consistency in security is lacking and it comes at a huge cost.

See, you can't be on high alert all the time -- 24 hours, 7 days a week, 365 days a year -- it’s not humanly possible. And also you may avoid 99 incidents but the hundredth will happen. Because the enemy is also looking for weaknesses, gaps and that is why this happens.

You are familiar with Kashmir. Do you believe that the terrorists had local support?

It cannot happen without the local support. Somebody has helped them with a recce, somebody has helped them with transport to reach the area, somebody has given them food. It cannot happen without local support,

Pakistanis cannot do it on their own.

But we are seeing massive protests, bandhs, in Kashmir against the attack, which is happening for the first time. Mirwaiz Farooq has publicly condemned the attack.

Yes, this is the first time there is such a huge response from the people in Kashmir. All sections of Kashmiri society have protested the attack. But naturally there are bad elements among us also.

Why only Kashmir? Even within India you have people who are Jaichands, working against the country, ready to harm the country, working at the behest of the enemy. You have sleeper cells in Bengal, UP, Hyderabad,

So the danger is not from China or Pakistan, or what Mr Ajit Doval calls the ‘two fronts’. Now that Bangladesh has been added, it is three-and-a-half fronts, if you add your countrymen.

You said that the terrorists obviously had local support, but in your experience, as someone who has seen terrorism in Kashmir at close quarters as a former DGP, do you think local support will ever end?

It is the most difficult part. Otherwise these terror incidents would not be happening. Why are they happening only in Kashmir? Why not in Punjab or Haryana, where there is no local support? So the most difficult part is identifying these above-ground sleeper cells and this is the advantage the Pakistan deep State takes.  Pakistani terrorists would be a stranger in our Jammu and Kashmir unless they get some kind of support from the locals.

The J&K police should be working more on this and there should be huge and the harshest punishment for these people, because more than the enemy, they are the ones who aggregate such attacks.

In your time, how did you tackle this?

I don't think I was able to eliminate 100 per cent of local support to terrorism, but yes, we did manage to do it to certain extent. It is impossible to do this without the people on your side, you need public support -- that is the secret of your success -- and you need to work a lot on building police-public relations on this front.

With the possibility of tourism falling in Kashmir, possible unemployment, will these people be drawn to terrorism?

When people were busy in constructive activities, obviously terrorism was falling. Locals involved in terrorism as a percentage had come down drastically -- less than 10% today. So, more than 90% of the component of terrorists in Kashmir are Pakistani. In fact in the Jammu region, 95% of terrorists are Pakistanis.

So locals being a part of terrorism is very minimal now. But obviously when people don't have constructive things to do, they will fall prey to terrorism.

US Vice President JD Vance was in India when the incident happened. Former US President Bill Clinton was here when the Chittisinghpura massacre happened. What does this say about our security preparedness as a nation, that when VVIPs arrive security must be upped for possible terror attacks?

Absolutely. Whenever a high profile visit takes place there is increasing chances of terror attacks, major terror attacks. Bill Clinton came and Chittisinghpura happened, I think two or three more such incidents happened. That day US Vice President Vance was here, PM Modi was in Saudi Arabia, so the world was already looking at India and international media attention is what terrorists seek and they got it.

But what does this say about how prepared we are as a nation?

Certainly, security alertness was missing. Security agencies should have been more alert since Mr Vance was visiting. They should have anticipated that a major attack can take place and they did not.

What was the catalyst for the attack? Do you think it was Tahawwur Rana’s extradition, the ‘jugular vein’ speech by Pak army chief Asim Munir, the summer thaw which enables terrorists to infiltrate easily. What do you think?

The attack has the stamp of the Pakistan army written all over it. It was well planned, well received, and ordered from the direct connections it has in Kashmir.

It's not a coincidence that 3-4 months back a Hamas team visited Jaish-e-Mohammed’s headquarters in Bahawalpur which houses their combat simulation centre. I find similarities in the attack that happened here and that happened on October 7 in Israel, where 1200 people were killed at a music concert.

Yes, circumstances were different, there were high-tech Israeli surveillance systems that the Hamas had to breach, here it was eyeball to eyeball deployment of manpower.

In fact, when I read the news of the Hamas visit to Pakistan I felt something big was being planned. Like October 7, the Pahalgam terrorists too filmed and videographed the killings and I believe they will also release the videos. People were celebrating a music festival there, people were celebrating Kashmir’s beauty and holidays here.

I certainly think this attack has a Hamas footprint -- it was inspired by the Hamas attack and was like their attack -- well planned and well executed.

Pakistan has used the word war to describe what would happen if India suspended or diverted the Indus Water Treaty. Pakistan has been described as a rogue State, a failed State, yet the ability to put pressure on Pakistan is always limited given its importance to China and the US. Is India's foreign policy faulty?

No, no. India 's foreign policy is outstanding. China traditionally supports Pakistan, no doubt. Let's see this time. China also needs India with the trade war going on with the US. The whole world is standing with India.

See the kind of messages you got from Donald Trump, from Vladimir Putin, from our neighbours, Everyone is standing with India and they all have condemned this terror attack.

Yes, but we had similar messages during Pulwama as well. Messages of solidarity over a terror incident will happen, but ultimately it is India, which has to take the decision about how to act. Do you have faith that India will act in a way where retribution is severe.

Yes, certainly. India will give Pakistan a befitting reply.

And there can be no Aman Ki Asha?

That is all bakwas. I mean, Pakistan has an ideology like jihad. Aman Ki Asha for Pakistan is nonsense.