The latest reverse suffered by the Indian Army, which lost one of its Colonels while taking on the terrorists head on, follows a string of successes over the past two months when the Army killed four top militant commanders. This came about due to change in strategy to go after high-value targets thereby unsettling the lower militant cadres and force them to come out of hiding and security forces nabbing them.
The strategy is paying dividends. Before the Army gunned down four militants on Monday in two separate encounters in South Kashmir, it had eliminated a top lashkar-e-Tayyeba (leT) commander of Pakistani origin Abdul Rehman, known in Kashmir as Abu Qasim on October 28. The hunt is on for the terrorists who gunned down Col Santosh Mahadik in Kupwara last week.
The counter-insurgency grid comprising the Army, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and the Special Operations Group (SOG) of Jammu & Kashmir Police have also killed four of the militants of Burhan Wani group, who had posted their pictures in battle fatigues brandishing weapons on Facebook besides a video even as a hunt is on for the others.
Wani, 21, son of a school principal, has emerged as the leader of Hizbul Mujahideen group and created a stir of sorts by uploading pictures of some of associates along with his own snap on the social media. Security forces launched a major operation in the past weeks and managed to kill four militants of his group in the last ten days. Incidentally, Wani carries a reward of Rs ten lakhs.
The slain militants owing allegiance to Wani group were local Kashmiris who were swayed by Wani’s so-called sermons on the video, which went viral, to resort to violence. In fact, one of the slain militants in the encounter four days back Afaq Ahmed Bhat was the son of a police man. Afaq had joined the group only four months back.
Officials said here on Monday these successful operations had badly hit Pakistan-based groups including leT, Jaish-e-Mohammad (JEM) and laskhar-e-Islam. The leaders included Irshad Gani (leT), Riyaz Ahmed Mir (lashkar-e-Islam), Adil Pathan (JeM) besides Abu Qasim. He had masterminded the attack on the BSF convoy near Udhampur two months back. Two BSF jawans were killed in the ambush and the security forces managed to capture a Pakistani terrorist Mohammad Naved Yakub.
Elaborating upon the change in the strategy in the counter-terrorist operations in South Kashmir, sources said the security forces including the Army, CRPF, SOG of J&K were keen to unsettle the militants hiding in the Valley and force them to come over ground.
With winters round the corner and ingress routes getting blocked due to heavy snow for nearly four months, the security forces are keen to deny the space to militants to move with freedom. Real time and credible intelligence has led to these recent successes, they said and quoted the example of Qasim encounter. They said the tip off was accurate and security forces were able to account for the Pakistani terrorist.
Explaining the significance of these operations, they said with infiltration coming down sharply from across the line of Control (loC) in the last one year and infiltration routes about to become inaccessible, militants inside the Kashmir Valley will find it hard to sustain themselves for long due to lack of associates and weapons.
However, in an effort to make their presence felt by trying to engineer terrorist strikes, militants will be forced to resort to desperate measures and security forces are banking on intelligence to thwart them. Officials have not ruled some audacious attempts by the lower cadre of leT and JeM on targets like military camps and key Government installations in the next few days.
The local security forces commanders are also worried over the rising trend of local Kashmiri youths joining the militant groups. This phenomenon had nearly vanished over the past few years but picked up again last year. At present, more than 60 youths, most of them highly educated, joined groups like Hizbul Mujahideen in the last four months and officials admitted this figure had nearly double from last year.