Sajad Hameed
Srinagar Dec 17: The USA has repeatedly referred to Jammu and Kashmir as Indian Union Territory in its latest terrorism report, indicating that the world’s powerful country has endorsed the new status of the region post abrogation of Article 370.
The Country Reports on Terrorism-2020 released by the US Department of State has referred to Pakistan as part of Kashmir either Pakistan administered Kashmir or Azad Kashmir.
“South Asia in 2020 saw..a volatile mix of insurgent attacks punctuated by incidents of terrorism in the Indian Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir,” reads the opening sentence in the overview on South and Central Asia.
The opening sentence of the India chapter reads, “In 2020, terrorism affected the Indian Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), in northeastern India, and Maoist-affected parts of central India.”
The report went on to say that the Indian government made significant efforts to detect, disrupt, and degrade the “operations of terrorist organizations within its borders”.
The counter-terrorism and security cooperation with the United States expanded in 2020, it said.
It says on May 2, 2020, armed men who had infiltrated across the Line of Control from the Pakistan-administered side of Kashmir took civilian hostages in a nearby village. “Two army officers and three police personnel were killed in a gunfight in the resulting hostage rescue operation. Laskhar-e-Tayyiba and its offshoot, the Resistance Front, claimed that the hostage-takers were members of the group,” it said.
New Delhi on August 5, 2019, abrogated Article 370 and its corollary Article 35-A which would provide limited autonomy to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir. It also bifurcated the State into two Union Territories – Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir.
The decision triggered protests in J&K and Ladakh.
In the run-up to the abrogation of Article 370, both mainstream and separatist leaders were detained. Three former chief ministers of Jammu and Kashmir Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah, and Mehbooba Mufti too were detained for several months.
After the abrogation of Article 370, former US President Donald Trump on August 26 during the G7 summit held in the French town of Biarritz told reporters, “We spoke last night about Kashmir…And the Prime Minister (Modi) really feels he has it under control. I know they speak with Pakistan, and I’m sure that they will be able to do something that will be very good. We spoke about it last night at great length.”
On January 21, 2020, during a bilateral meeting with Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan at the 50th World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, Trump brought up the issue saying, “And if we can help, we certainly will be helping.”
However, the line was skipped in the readout issued by the White House.
