Pakistan’s Latest Batch Group Picture

Those teenage boys, all aged 16 to 18, look fresh and eager in their “graduation” group picture which is now going viral on the internet. They are the latest batch of “terror cadets” readied by PoK-based Hizbul Mujahideen in Muzzaffarabad to carry on its proxy war against India.

The 24 militants in the picture are “child recruits” from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and parts of Pakistan. The three men standing on the left, looking a little older, are the trainers who too belong to PoK or to Pakistan’s Punjab Province.

“Their locally-sourced camouflage combat uniform, which is ankle-length kurta and pajama, indicates they are terror trainers and not from the Pakistani army,” says Chandrashekhar Bhattachary, senior analyst at the Delhi Defense Review. There are an estimated 150 trained militants at launch pads along the Line of Control, waiting to cross over. J&K Police say there are 200 other active militants in the Valley.

The picture was released just a few days after Hizbul commander Sabzar Ahmad Bhat, who led the terror outfit’s operations in Kashmir following the encounter death of Burhan Wani, was killed in Tral by the Indian Army.

There is now a succession war raging in the Hizbul ranks, with the Class 10 dropout Saddam Padder throwing a challenge to the 30-year-old, tech savvy Riaz Naikoo. Saddam is upset after being overlooked for the top job due to his lack of educational qualifications. Naikoo is a “moderate” who has invited Kashmiri Pandits back to the Valley.

Over the last few weeks, the Indian Army stopped multiple attempts of infiltration along the LoC. There was information on Pakistan’s SSG Commandos and terrorists carrying out a recee along the LoC in Poonch. Pakistan is also trying to gather information about the timing and routine of Indian border patrols, which indicates they are planning an action on the Indian side by their brutal Border Action Team.