The outgoing General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the Srinagar-based 15 Corps, Lieutenant General Rajiv Ghai on Thursday said that the Indian Army is working hard to crack the highly encrypted communication network of the terrorists to dismantle their ecosystem in the region.
Briefing media persons in Srinagar Lt Gen Rajiv Ghai said, “We are aware that terrorists operating in the valley are using ultra communication networks, which have layers of encryption. While presently it is affording them the secrecy that they want I assure you that work is happening in this direction and soon we will be able to crack that encryption and I am hoping that will further dent their ecosystem and networks”.
The senior Army officer also claimed that the active number of terrorists in the region has also come down to 80 and no fresh recruitment has taken place in recent months in the valley.
“There are around 80 active terrorists in Kashmir. The figure has gone down. Their number will be further down by mid-next year,” he said.
He estimated that between 25 and 30 foreign terrorists remain active, and the army is determined to neutralize them soon. “We foiled infiltration attempts by terrorists from across the border. This summer there were fewer attempts of infiltration,” he said.
He further stated that successful infiltration attempts were not mostly made in Kashmir but at other places.
Referring to the frequent attacks in Pir Pranjal range, Rajiv Ghai said that there were chances that the terrorists may attempt to take shelter in Kashmir. “Terrorists keep moving as they cannot survive in one place,” he said.
Sharing his assessment of the prevailing security scenario Lt Gen Ghai said Kashmir has seen a good year so far like last year. “We need a few more good years to make peace a permanent feature here. I believe maintaining this peaceful atmosphere is the biggest challenge for the security forces,” the GoC 15 Corps said.
Lt Gen Ghai said that there hasn’t been any active recruitment of terrorists this year. “The numbers were down to a dozen last year and this year it is next to nil,” the GoC said.
He said as far as the terrorist-initiated incidents in Kashmir, they are between far and few. “Some incidents were reported where soft targets were made by even an untrained person using a pistol,” the army officer said. To a query whether any troop cut was possible at this juncture, the GoC said: “We are in a consolidation phase and no dilution of counter insurgency and counter terrorism grid is recommended. Both the grids need to be maintained. I definitely won’t advocate any dilution to these grids at this stage,” the GoC said.
Earlier, in his opening remarks, the GoC said that during the past year-and-a-half, numerous attempts counter infiltration steps were taken while simultaneously prosecuting a very robust and successful counter-terrorist campaign within Kashmir. “While doing this, we have been very conscious of our responsibility and nation-building. So we have maintained our connection with the people of Kashmir,” the army officer said.
He said that the region is seeing a new beginning as numerous significant events are taking place besides development. “This is because of the efforts put in by (Chinar corps) 15 Corps, police, CAPF, police and numerous other security agencies,” the GoC said.
While he praised the improving security situation over the last two years, Lt. Gen. Ghai cautioned that maintaining peace remains the primary challenge, and vigilance must be maintained, particularly in counter-terrorism efforts at the LoC and within the valley.
