Terrorists again using mosques and madrassas as shelters in J-K

Faced with people in Kashmir increasingly refusing to give them refuge, terrorists are going back to taking shelter in mosques and madrassas that not only help them evade security forces but also provide them a school of young minds to indoctrinate, officials said on Monday.

The people’s reluctance to help terrorists and the government’s decision to heighten the vigil and seize any house that shelters militants have led to terror groups adopting their old tactic.

According to the officials, sustained efforts by both the government and security forces have effected a major change in the way the common people in Kashmir look at the terrorism and radical ideology being propagated from Pakistan. They are no longer inclined to provide shelter and other aids to terrorists.

In the early 1990s, terrorists often used to hide in the Hazratbal Shrine as well as Charar-e-Sharief leading to massive stand-offs with security forces.

An analysis of recent encounters, particularly in south Kashmir, conducted by security forces revealed that Pakistan-sponsored terrorists are again using places of worship and religious schools as shelters.

This disturbing trend was visible in three encounters in Kulgam, Naina Batpora and Chiva Kalan in the past few weeks, the officials said.

Terrorists had deliberately taken shelter in mosques and madrassas with the dual aim of avoiding detection and inciting religious sentiments by instigating the use of force or firing by security forces.

Rauf, a terrorist who was apprehended by the Army in Pulwama district of south Kashmir recently, told his interrogators that they had been taking shelter in a mosque and posing as preachers whenever the security forces closed in on them, the officials said.

Two Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorists, who were killed in the encounter in Chiva Kalan in Pulwama district, had been hiding inside a mosque. One of the slain terrorists was a Pakistani national.

According to the security forces, the madrassa was not only used by dreaded terrorists to carry out atrocities and attacks targeting local Kashmiri people but also to misguide Kashmiri children and youths.

Alarmed by the indoctrination of these young minds, security forces have been holding special camps to make their parents aware about the threat of use of religious places for indoctrination of their children.

“If this is the way terrorists in the valley are going to target young impressionable minds while the common Kashmiri parents are kept in the dark by the very teachers they trust the lives of their children with, the future of next generation of Kashmir is anything but safe,” an official said, highlighting the grave threat.

The officials urged the people of Kashmir to raise their voices against these acts and save their children from falling prey to this vicious cycle of terror.

Source: Tribune India