Concerned about growing cases of civilians interfering in anti-terrorist operations in Kashmir and helping militants to escape, the Army is redrawing its tactics. The trend of mobs surrounding the encounter sites started a year ago in the Valley and at least 25 terrorists managed to evade arrest in at least 12 encounters when huge crowds pelted stones on the security forces.
Apprehending that this phenomenon will increase, the local Commanders are now focussing on a more structured approach to deal with this trend in close co-ordination with the local police and paramilitary forces.
Officials said the Army will now adopt steps like warning crowds through loud speakers from coming too close to the encounter site and sensitising the residents about these measures through regular interaction.
This comes in the backdrop of six soldiers, including an officer getting killed last week in two separate encounters. One Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) Commandant was critically wounded.
On Wednesday, Army Chief General Bipin Rawat issued a stern message that those hampering the ‘operations’ will be dealt with harshly. Also, he cautioned that local youths who have picked up the gun and those displaying Pakistani and ISIS flags will be treated as anti-national elements and security forces will go after them.
Backing the Army chief’s warning, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said on Friday that the Government has given a free hand to the Army to deal with miscreants. His observation followed some political parties criticising the Army Chief for “such a statement which may lead to further alienation of local youth.”
Elaborating upon the worrying phenomenon of surging crowds, officials said most of these incidents took place in densely populated areas of South Kashmir. Earlier, the security forces managed to control the mobs as the numbers were small. However, of late crowds of 3,000 to 4,000 were rushing to the encounter sites making it difficult for police and paramilitary contingents to control them without using bullets.
The latest incident took place in Kulgam where three terrorists escaped and four Army personnel, including a Major were killed, they said.
The Army had changed its tactics early last year. In many cases, small Army teams conducted anti-terrorist operations and then only informed the police.
However, these kinds of operations are possible in rural areas where the population is sparse. While conducting operations in crowded areas such as in Pulwama, Kulgam and Shopian, the Army has to carry out joint encounters, along with police and paramilitary, they said.
The officials said while infiltration remained negligible from across the line of Control (loC) in winter since ingress routes were blocked by snow, the loC could become ‘hot’ in the coming weeks after the snow melts.
Officials said at least 200 well-trained terrorists are waiting to infiltrate into Kashmir.
Security forces had accounted for 22 terrorists in the last two months in the hinterland while the figure stood at ten in 2016 and 2015.