TNN
New Delhi, Apr 15: India is already grappling with a new enemy at the gate in the shape of much better-trained and equipped jihadis trying to infiltrate into Jammu & Kashmir with a new-found determination.
And now, it may have to tackle women militants or fidayeen as well. After recent intelligence reports that outfits like Lashkar-e-Taiba, with some support from the al-Qaida-Taliban combine, were trying to dispatch women suicide bombers to India after initial reconnaissance missions, it's now Army chief General Deepak Kapoor's turn to sound a warning.
"We have information that women are being trained on the other side of the border to infiltrate into J&K," said Gen Kapoor, on the sidelines of a seminar on Tuesday. Coming as this does soon after security forces intercepted mobile phone conversations between the two Jaish-e-Mohammad militants killed in the Pulwama encounter over the weekend and "a woman handler", it could well mark a startling new shift in the jihadi strategy against India.
"It is possible women may even be involved in giving directions to terrorists," said Gen Kapoor, holding that security forces were "ready to neutralise" anybody who tried to disrupt peace or the coming general elections.
Unlike Sri Lanka, Gaza, Iraq or Chechnya, women suicide bombers have remained largely an unknown phenomenon in India, except of course for the infamous belt-bomb assassin Dhanu who killed former PM Rajiv Gandhi at Sriperumbudur in May 1991.
Though home minister P Chidambaram earlier this month directed the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security to withdraw the security alert about trained pilots and a women fidayeen squad having infiltrated into India, intelligence reports of women being roped in to spread terror in India are beginning to pile up like never before.
Recent inputs shared among J&K Police, Army and other security forces as well as the nodal channel for all terror-related intelligence, the Multi-Agency Centre under the home ministry, show that 100 to 150 women, in their early-20s, "had been trained in terror tactics" at the Lal Masjid in Islamabad. "A woman identified as Ashama, the wife of a slain terrorist, was also involved in the training programme. The young women were trained to use weapons, speak Hindi and carry out propaganda," said an official.
"Earlier, we had inputs that some women were trained at a camp near Kotli in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in weapons, radio communication and field-craft. Some have even undergone marine training," he added.
Then there are also interrogation reports of a 24-year-old woman, Ashiya Malik, arrested by BSF personnel from the Sunderbani sector near the Line of Control on November 12 last year.
Ashiya, wife of a Pakistani Army havildar Sajjad Ahmed, has reportedly disclosed that many women were undergoing training in the handling of weapons and explosives as well as jungle warfare in camps located at Bhimber, Muridke and Sensa across the border. Gen Kapoor, on his part, said Army was "fully prepared" to deal with any contingency.
"Whether it is LeT, JeM or HuJI, whosoever tries to disturb peace and stability of the region, they will be dealt with in the same fashion and will be neutralised," he said.
While holding that there was no concrete evidence of Taliban having made inroads into J&K till now, he said Army had "foreseen" the spurt in cross-border infiltration with elections around the corner.
"We were quite well prepared for it. We did expect there would be a certain amount of calibration from the other side to push in infiltrators. Our troops are deployed in three tiers along the LoC to be able to check infiltration," he said.
"We are quite confident and sure people will be able to exercise their franchise in a peaceful and stable environment as had happened for the assembly polls," he added.