The initiative is meant to give common  masses and right-thinking people of J&K a respite from violence and en­courage them to isolate militants, thus breaking the cycle of bloodshed, funerals and recruitment of locals into their ranks," said an official. The intention is to create some political space after a prolonged "hit hard" policy that had cramped the room for dialogue despite the appointment of a politi­cal interlocutor.

The government's decision could also be seen in the context of suggestions that a peace initiative could have some implica­tions for restarting the stalled engagement with Pakistan. While the foreign policy ram­ifications are less apparent at the current stage, there has been some speculation over reports that the Pakistan army is more ame­nable to an engagement and this can open a window of opportunity.

Intelligence sources said that the suspen­sion of operations would mean that security forces will not return fire unless fired on. The initiative is unlikely to cut much ice with terror outfits like Lashkar-e-Taiba. With the downsizing of the united jihad council chief Salahuddin by ISI, power passed from Hizbul Mujahideen to LeT but the latter is now in a bind as locals are joining militancy without any assistance from Pa­kistan by way of arms or training.

The locals are seen to be "very unhappy young men" who have serious issues with the state but at the same time they have no love for Pakistan. This is the key reason why the ISI is also worried that the entire militan­cy is out of its control in the sense that it is not controlling the flow of events as it might want to. Any attempt to increase attacks by Pakistan-trained militants will be forcibly retaliated and sources said the counter-infil­tration grid shall remain active and will foil any attempt by terrorists to sneak across the LoC and international border.

Soon after the Centre approved suspen­sion of operations on Wednesday, home min­ister Rajnath Singh informed J&K CM Mehbooba Mufti of the decision. The latter took to Twitter to welcome it and thanked PM Narendra Modi and Singh for their "personal intervention".

The decision to suspend counter-terror operations in J&K for a month was taken af­ter factoring in all possibilities, including the likelihood of it coming unstuck due to terrorists who may try to initiate attacks so as to compel security forces to act. "If the ter­rorists stage a big attack in the days to come, it may be the end of suspension of oper­ations. Every initiative is open to constant review," an officer told TOI, when asked why the suspension of operations did not cover Amarnath Yatra.

An officer said the onus is now on terror­ists to ensure peace-loving Muslims of Kash­mir can observe a violence-free Ramzan.

Courtesy: Times Of India, 17, May, 2018.