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The beheading phenomenon

 

The murder of the Pundir brothers comes close on the heels of a

series of beheadings of hostages by militants in Saudi Arabia, Iraq

and Afghanistan. Militants with links to al-Qaeda beheaded a Korean

hostage in Iraq last week, two days after an American hostage in

Saudi Arabia was decapitated. A month ago, Nick Berg, another

American working in Iraq, was kidnapped and then beheaded. In 2002,

Daniel Pearl, a Wall Street Journal reporter in Pakistan, was taken

hostage and then killed by having his throat cut.

 

In the Middle East, where terror tactics have included suicide

bombings, hijackings and shootings, hostages are usually shot dead.

Decapitation of hostages is a recent phenomenon.

 

But J & K, the Philippines, Chechnya and Algeria have witnessed scores

of beheadings by militants. The first beheading of a hostage by

militants in J & K came to light in 1995. Six Western tourists trekking

in the Himalayas were kidnapped by a terrorist group, al-Faran (which

later changed its name to Harkat-ul Mujahideen). While one hostage

escaped, another, Hans Christian Ostro, a Norwegian, was

beheaded. " Al-Faran " was carved with a knife on Ostro's torso.

 

While Ostro's beheading by militants evoked outrage world-wide and

captured international attention, the beheading of hundreds of

ordinary Kashmiris and Indian soldiers by the militants has gone

almost unnoticed.

 

The adoption of medieval practices such as beheading and chopping off

people's noses and ears since the mid-1990s in Jammu and Kashmir has

been attributed to the increasing Talibanization of the militancy. In

the early 1990s, the militancy in Kashmir was dominated by Kashmiris,

but by 1994-95 the foreign element in the militant groups increased.

Gradually the face of the militancy changed with Pakistanis, Afghan

and Chechen jihadis carrying out the more gruesome attacks.

 

Indian army sources in Rajouri and Poonch - the two districts in the

Jammu region of the state that have perhaps been the worst-hit by

terrorism in recent years - say that the number of brutal killings is

far higher in Jammu than in the Kashmir Valley. Scores of victims

here have been beheaded. The noses or ears of suspected informers

have been chopped off. Bodies of victims have been found sliced to

bits.

 

During the India-Pakistan conflict at Kargil in the summer of 1999,

the severely mutilated bodies of six Indian soldiers caused outrage

all over the country. The victims had been severely tortured before

being killed. The eyes of some victims had been gouged out.

 

The extreme brutality of militant attacks in Jammu has been

attributed to the fact that foreign militants and jihadis dominate

the militant groups active here. In the Valley, many local boys

joined the militant groups, although their numbers have fallen in

recent years. In Jammu, but for the Gujjars (who graze sheep in the

upper reaches of the mountains and are familiar with the mountain

tracks) who have worked with the militants as porters and guides,

locals have largely stayed away from taking up arms.

 

A fate worse than death

The use of particularly brutal tactics creates far more terror than

the fear created by guns and grenades. Residents of J & K point out

that the sight of a decapitated body or the thought of having to live

with an acid-scarred face or without ears or a nose for life

paralyses them with fear.

 

Several times over the past 15 years, Islamic militants have imposed

the burqa (an all-enveloping cloak that covers a woman from head to

toe) on women, threatening them with acid and paint if they dared to

defy the diktat (order). Women admit that they succumbed to the

terror only because of the extreme brutality and gruesomeness of the

punishment. In 2000, 16-year-old Mewaiz was shot through the knees

for wearing trousers and leaving her head uncovered. There have been

several instances of girls becoming targets of acid attacks by

militants simply because they had left their heads uncovered or were

going to school.

 

The districts of Rajouri and Poonch witnessed a sharp surge in

particularly gruesome attacks in the months of November-December

2002. A jihadi outfit had imposed the wearing of the burqa in Rajouri

a few weeks earlier. They slit the throats of girls who defied the

diktat.

 

Both Hindus and Muslims have been beheaded by the jihadis over the

past 15 years. In 2001, the beheading of two Hindu priests in Poonch

triggered immense rage in the district, prompting the security forces

to impose a curfew in the area. More Muslims have, however, been

beheaded or subjected to gory forms of torture and killing. Muslims

suspected of being informers are seen as the worst " traitors " of the

jihadi cause.

 

There have been cases of children being beheaded on the suspicion

that their fathers were informers and of women being injected with

poison as punishment for their fathers, brothers and husbands working

with the local police. In 2002, three teenage girls were killed in

Hasiyot in Rajouri district. Two of them were beheaded, the third

shot dead. Militants accused them of being informers but the girls'

families believe that the girls were killed because they were going

to school. In March this year, five-year-old Zahida and her four-year-

old brother were executed by the Lashkar-e-Toiba in Jammu's Doda

district because her parents refused to provide sanctuary to

militants.

 

Meanwhile, several cases of beheading came to light in the run-up to

the recent general elections. The Hindustan Times reported an

incident where militants chopped off the ears of two village elders

they had abducted in Jammu's Udhampur district. The victims had been

severely beaten before their ears were chopped off. The militants

then took the two victims back to the village and showed the chopped

ears to the terrified villagers. This was followed by a warning to

the villagers not to vote in the general election.

 

The cases of beheading and chopping off of noses and ears are far too

numerous and horrific to be recounted here. Suffice to say, the cases

that appear in the Indian media are but the tip of the iceberg.

 

What sets apart the beheadings in Kashmir from the recent ones in

Iraq and Saudi Arabia is that militants here have not used the

Internet or videos to draw international attention to themselves.

Their aims are local. They want to intimidate and terrorize local

people into obeying their orders and falling in line with their

thinking. And they are succeeding.

 

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/FF30Df03.html