In the early 2000s, notorious terrorist Ghazi Baba was killed in an encounter with security forces in Kashmir. Ghazi was the commander of Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), and his death seriously hurt the plans of JeM and its founder Masood Azhar. “At that time, we went after JeM,” said Rajendra Kumar, former director-general of Jammu and Kashmir Police. “We literally eliminated the group.”
After his retirement, Kumar lives in Hyderabad, but he keeps track of JeM. “It operates very silently, unlike other groups. Its members are experts in carrying out such attacks,” he said, referring to the suicide attack in Pulwama.
Kumar said JeM used to have a group of foreign fighters who played a critical role in its operations. Not anymore. Adil Ahmad Dar, the young man who blew himself up in Pulwama, was a local Kashmiri. Kumar said engaging local boys was part of JeM's cost-cutting measures. “Having realised that foreign mercenaries are being eliminated, JeM is going for low-cost operations. It is trying to push local boys by providing them with resources,” he said.
Kumar blamed social media for instigating young Kashmiris from urban and semi-urban areas to take up arms. He said Kashmir was moving away from the culture of Sufism to Wahhabism. “An entire generation of youth in Kashmir from the 1990s has not seen a secular society. Many of them are not even aware of places of worship of other religions.”