J&K POLICE AND OFFICIALS
IG Paramdeep Singh Gill – police chief who instigates his own al Faran inquiry
DSP Kifayat Haider – police officer with operational responsibility for Pahalgam
SP Farooq Khan – the first STF chief
General K.V. Krishna Rao – former chief of the Indian Army and Governor of Kashmir
DG Mahendra Sabharwal – Kashmir police chief
SP Mushtaq Sadiq – officer leading the al Faran Squad
Lt. General (rtd) D.D. Saklani – Security Advisor to the Governor of Kashmir
IG Rajinder Tikoo – Crime Branch chief, who leads the negotiations with al Faran
SSP Bashir Ahmed Yatoo – senior Kashmiri police officer seconded to Kashmir State Human Rights Commission to investigate unmarked graves in 2011
THE KASHMIRI PRESS PACK
Mushtaq Ali – photographer for AFP. Rescued Kim Housego and David Mackie in 1994, and worked closely with Yusuf Jameel in 1995
Yusuf Jameel – the BBC’s Srinagar correspondent, instrumental in digging up the story behind the 1995 kidnapping
THE JIHADIS
‘The Afghani’ (Sajjad Shahid Khan) – the Movement’s military commander, a veteran Pashtun fighter from the Afghan–Pakistan border
Master Allah Baksh Sabir Alvi – retired schoolteacher and father of Masood Azhar
Masood Azhar – the jailed General Secretary of Harkat ul-Ansar (the Movement for the Victorious), from Bahawalpur, in the Pakistan Punjab, who later became the head of Jaish-e-Mohammed (the Army of Mohammed)
‘Brigadier Badam’ – pseudonym for a senior ISI officer who was instrumental in establishing the ISI’s proxy war in Indian Kashmir
Maulana Fazlur Rehman Khalil – Masood Azhar’s mentor in Karachi. The spiritual leader of the Movement
Nasrullah Mansoor Langrial – famed jihadi commander from Langrial, Pakistan, chosen as deputy to the Afghani and known in jihadi circles as ‘Darwesh’
Omar Sheikh – former student at the London School of Economics, who became a kidnapper for the Movement in 1994. Also involved in the 2002 abduction of American journalist Daniel Pearl
‘Sikander’ (Javid Ahmed Bhat) – southern commander of the Movement, from Dabran village, in Anantnag, Kashmir
Naseer Mohammed Sodozey – a senior fighter in the Movement, captured in April 1996 and forced under torture to incriminate himself in the 1995 kidnappings
‘The Turk’ (Abdul Hamid al-Turki) – field commander of al Faran, a veteran mujahideen fighter of Turkish ancestry
Qari Zarar – Kashmiri deputy commander of al Faran, from Doda, in Jammu
THE PRO-GOVERNMENT RENEGADES
‘Alpha’ or ‘Azad Nabi’ (Ghulam Nabi Mir) – renegade commander based in Shelipora, above Anantnag
‘Bismillah’ – Alpha’s deputy, based in Shelipora
‘The Clerk’ (Abdul Rashid) – Alpha’s district commander, based in Vailoo, above Anantnag
‘The Tiger’ (Basir Ahmad Wagay) – Alpha’s field commander, based in Lovloo, above Anantnag
AFP – Agence France-Press
BJP – the Bharatiya Janata Party, a conservative Hindu nationalist political party
BSF – Border Security Force, a paramilitary outfit raised by India after its war with Pakistan in 1965 and later employed in Kashmir on counter-insurgency operations
CRPF – Central Reserve Police Force, the paramilitary police inducted into Kashmir to fight the insurgency
DG – Director General of Police. The force’s chief
DIG – Deputy Inspector General of Police
DSP – Deputy Superintendent of Police
HM (Hizbul Mujahideen: ‘the Party of the Holy Warriors’) – a Kashmiri militant outfit, formed in 1989, heavily backed at first by Pakistan
HuA (Harkat ul-Ansar: ‘the Movement for the Victorious’) – a group formed in Pakistan in 1993 by the combination of three jihad fronts, including Harkat ul Mujahideen, to rally insurgents fighting India in Kashmir. Designated as a terrorist organisation by the US in 1997
HuM (Harkat ul-Mujahideen: ‘the Order of Holy Warriors’) – formed in Pakistan in the mid-1980s by Maulana Khalil to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan. The precursor of Harkat ul-Ansar
IB – Intelligence Bureau, Indian domestic intelligence
IG – Inspector General of Police
IPS – Indian Police Service
ISI – Inter Services Intelligence directorate, Pakistan’s military intelligence agency
J&K – Jammu and Kashmir
JKLF – Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, formed in Birmingham, UK, in 1977; one of the first militant outfits to mount an armed struggle against India in Kashmir
JKSLF, or SLF – Jammu and Kashmir Students Liberation Front, also known as the Students Liberation Front. Formed in Kashmir in 1987
LoC – Line of Control, the 406-mile-long ‘ceasefire line’ that separates the Indian and Pakistan sections of the divided state of Jammu and Kashmir
POK – Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, as the Indians sometimes refer to the section of the state administered by Islamabad
RAW – Research and Analysis Wing, Indian foreign intelligence
RR – Rashtriya Rifles, an Indian Army force of specialist counter-insurgency troops, formed in 1990 to fight the insurgency in Kashmir
RSS – Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, a Hindu paramilitary movement founded in 1925 to oppose British colonialism
SHRC – State Human Rights Commission, an Indian government body that investigates allegations of human rights abuses
SP – Superintendent of Police
SSP – Senior Superintendent of Police
STF/SOG – police Special Task Force, later renamed the Special Operations Group, founded in 1993 to fight the insurgency in Kashmir
On 1 May 2011, a Prowler electronic-warfare aircraft, taking off from the USS Carl Vinson, jammed Pakistan’s radar systems, silence spreading like emulsion over the Islamic republic. At fifty-six minutes past midnight on the morning of 2 May, two American stealth Hawks, ferrying a team of US Navy Seals, hovered over a walled compound in the spick-and-span garrison town of Abbottabad, seventy-two miles north of Islamabad, the Pakistani capital.
Over the next few minutes, Operation Neptune Spear came to a head, achieving, with only a dozen shots fired, what John Brennan, President Obama’s chief counter-terrorism advisor would call the ‘defining moment’ in the war against terrorism.
Winkled out of his hiding place by cruising satellites capable of measuring the length of a man’s shadow from six hundred miles up, while down on the ground a medical-aid camp