The killing of seven policemen in as many days has rung alarm bells in the anti-terrorist grid in Jammu & Kashmir as these targeted hits are meant to cripple the intelligence flow. Most of the murdered policemen were part of the unit gathering and providing real-time intelligence to the Army and the Central Reserve Police Force(CRPF) to launch operations quickly without collateral damage.
The twin objective behind these killings in the volatile South Kashmir region is to break the intelligence network on the one hand and hit the morale of the police force on the other. Moreover, these incidents come amidst reports that terrorists from across the line of Control (loC) are planning a major offensive including Border Action Team(BAT)actions on both sides of Pir Panjal ranges and stepping up violence in the run up to the forthcoming panchayat and local urban bodies polls in the State, sources in the security establishment said on Wednesday.
While the local commanders of the anti-insurgency grid including the Army, CRPF and the local police are now redrawing their strategy to deal with the new challenge, officials said terrorists cannot be allowed to gain the upper hand in the coming days by going on a spree of incidents.
Also, intelligence inputs indicate that terrorists across the line of Control(loC) are planning BAT action against Army personnel guarding the border. The BAT teams comprise Pakistani commandoes and terrorists and they sneak into Kashmir from across the lOC and try to kill soldiers. At least two such inputs of likely attacks have come in the region of Machil in north Pir Panjal range besides a mixed group of terrorists of various organisations making a bid to infiltrate in big groups in Tangdhar and Uri sectors. Similarly, BAT is anticipated in Poonch sector in South Pir Panjal range besides militants engineering major strikes in the hinterland.
The latest two incidents in which policemen were killed took place on Eid and on Wednesday respectively. In the latest case, an escort party of a senior police officer was targeted near fruit market in Shopian killing four cops. They were reportedly present in the area in connection with repair work of their vehicle. Earlier, three policemen were killed on Eid last week by unidentified militants. The cops were visiting their families when the militants barged into their homes and killed them in front of their families.
Taking serious note of the spike in such cases, Director General of Police S P Vaid told media persons last week that time to time advisories were issued to policemen not to visit their homes in restive parts of the state without informing their seniors and also to go there with protection. It is believed many of the slain policemen did not follow the standard operating procedure.
Elaborating upon the seriousness of the situation, officials admitted these cases will impact anti-terrorist operations as policemen engaged in providing crucial information are likely to refrain from doing so fearing such brutal reprisals. Sources also said militants are resorting to hit policemen after sustained operations in the last few months saw neutralization of top leadership of the various terrorist ‘tanzeems’ (organisation).
The Army and CRPF depend on the local police for providing intelligence about the presence of militants in an area and operations are subsequently launched. If the information flow dries up, it will be difficult for the anti-insurgency to work effectively thereby giving an upper hand to the militants, they said.
Since January 1,2018 till date more than three dozen police personnel and civilians were killed by terrorists to avenge killing of their top commanders. As many as 27 policemen and 5 Special Police Officers(SPO) were killed in year 2017. In 2016, 17 police personnel and 1 SPO was killed in the entire year. Ten had lost their lives in 2015, 16 in 2014, and 19 in 2013. Moreover, 22 civilians were killed in 2015, 20 in 2016 and 51 in 2017. As regards neutralization of terrorists, 108 terrorists were killed in 2015, 150 in 2016 and 213 in 2017. This year, so far, 142 terrorists have been killed by the security forces.