Rama Farooq, who served in the Indian army from the time of independence until his retirement, told this correspondent in 2014: “Many in the army believe that it is important to teach young Indian soldiers [about] Kashmir on a regular basis. It is as if we have a new battlefield on our hands.”
In 2014, the Indian Army launched a high intensity operation called Operation Search on the border with Pakistan, purportedly to foil a “nefarious plot” to abduct women from the border areas of Jammu and Kashmir.
Indian troops have also been involved in other military operations in Kashmir, most notably Operation Gibraltar in 2014, and Operation Blue Star in 2014, where about 160 Indian soldiers were killed, as well as in the 2014 encounter in Jammu with separatist militants. The Indian Army is also under fire for its indiscriminate use of guns, mortar shells and airstrikes on homes and villages in the area.
J&K is still politically charged after the Pathankot terror attack by the Pakistani Army, when Indian spy agency RAW fired thousands of rockets into Indian’s northern states. And there is also the ongoing controversy over land in Kashmir which belongs to both India and Pakistan, allegedly to be used as a military base for a possible offensive against North Kashmir in the future, and to be used to settle various personal disputes.
Tensions are also high on the disputed territory of Kashmir also within India. For instance, the Border Action Team (BAT) of the Indian Army has been stationed on a number of Indian-administered regions within Kashmir. The border skirmishes with Pakistan have increased in recent days. The Indian army has recently been deployed to the area of Burhan Wani’s hometown of Shopian, north Kashmir, to help settle a dispute between two armed groups. Last month four Indian soldiers were killed, along with four militants.
For their part, Pakistan continues to deploy additional soldiers to the Kashmir Valley, including at least 18 in the districts of Burhan Wani’s hometown of Shopian and at least 8 on the border with India.
In July, India filed a case of trespassing and obstructing government work in the area of Uri in the Jammu region in an attempt to force Pakistan to halt the “illegal occupation” of Jammu and Kashmir by the Pakistani soldiers. The Indian request had, however, been rejected, and Pakistan said it will never give up the Kashmir “territory”.
The latest Indian operation