Frontline Pakistan : The Struggle With Militant Islam - Arz-e-Pak

Pakistan’s Unholy Alliance
soon turned into an armed struggle against Indian forces. Thousands
of Kashmiri youths joined the separatist struggle, which was initially
led by the independent nationalist organization, Jammu and Kashmir
Liberation Front (JKLF)
The ISI used the extensive intelligence and militant network that it
had built up during the Afghan war to support a new jihad against the
Indian forces in Kashmir. In Afghanistan in the 1980s, jihadist cadres
came from the ranks of motivated Islamists across the Muslim world
who were prepared to die for the cause, as well as kill the ‘communists’.
The spirit saw its continuation in Kashmir, which became one of the
world’s hottest ‘Islamic jihad’ spots. The ISI’s involvement increased
further in the early 1990s when, in an attempt to sideline the JKLF, it
started supporting the pro-Pakistani Hezb-ul Mujahideen. The move
divided the Kashmiri struggle and led to internecine battles. The mid
1990s saw the increasing role of Pakistani-based militant groups. That
was when Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HuM), Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and
later Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) emerged as the main guerrilla forces
in the disputed state. Those hardline Islamic groups changed the
complexion of the struggle.
Most of the fighters belonging to those Islamic militant groups came
from Punjab and the North West Frontier Province. They tried to give
an Islamic orientation to a secular separatist movement, with disastrous
consequences. While the increasing involvement of Pakistani groups
kept the armed struggle alive, it also widened the division within the
movement. Many Kashmiri groups resented the ISI’s attempts, first
to ‘Pakistanize’ and then to ‘Islamize’ the movement. Thousands of
Pakistani militants had been killed in the fighting in Kashmir in more
than a decade.
In November 1990, Nawaz Sharif took over as Pakistan’s new Prime
Minister. A scion of one of the country’s richest business families from
Lahore, Sharif had entered politics as the protégé of General Zia. His
political career owed much to his father’s close links with General
Ghulam Jilani. The former ISI chief, who was appointed by Zia as
governor of Pakistan’s most powerful Punjab province as a reward
for his role in the 1977 coup, groomed Sharif as the alternative leader
to Benazir. He was appointed Punjab’s finance minister in 1981 and,
a couple of years later, he rose to the post of Chief Minister. Sharif
was a man of very mediocre talents. He had neither charisma nor
any political roots when he was chosen by General Zia to head the
government of Pakistan’s most powerful province.