The Army has launched major “seek and destroy” operations in the rugged and mountainous terrains of North Kashmir to flush out around 100 foreign terrorists, belonging to the lashkar-e-Tayyeba (leT) and Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), waiting to strike key installations in the days to come. The operations will be a sustained one to negate the strategic advantage to them in terms of time and space. The aim of the Army’s operations is to deny terrorists any “comfort zone” and “freedom of movement” by going hot on their heels.
Apprehending that these well-trained terrorists, backed by Pakistan Army and ISI, will try to carry out attacks by coming down to South Kashmir and escape back to the North, the Army commenced the operation a few days ago in Hajin, Bandipora, lolab and Handwara.
Giving details of the operations, officials said here on Saturday the main objective is to put “immense” pressure on the foreign terrorists hiding in North Kashmir and force them to come out of their “comfort zone”. “It becomes easier to catch or neutralise terrorists once they try to escape,” said sources, adding the window period for this operation is just four to five weeks.
Explaining the significance of the time frame, they said, at present, the days are longer with fairly less rain in North Kashmir which is mountainous with heights ranging from 12,000 to 15,000 feet, gorges and dense forests. However, the later part of August will see heavy rain and days will get shorter thereby providing ample opportunity to terrorists to hide and evade arrest, they said.
Keeping this crucial factor in view, the Army has intensified the “seek and destroy” missions with nearly one operation every day as compared to two to three in a week in the past, they said.
Also, the Army has more elbow room to go after terrorists in North Kashmir without worrying over collateral damage as it is sparsely populated due to hilly terrain.
The other reason for the intense operations is to prevent a spike in infiltration from across the line of Control (loC) as most of the ingress routes are through North Kashmir in the summer months, they said. Some infiltration bids have already taken place in these sectors in the past few weeks but the situation is manageable.
However, terrorists waiting in the launch pads across the loC in Pakistan-Occupied- Kashmir (POK) will renew their efforts to sneak in and the Army has to prevent them or else the number of militants in North Kashmir will swell. “It means, they will create trouble for us in the winter months,” officials said.