With the recent successes achieved in the fight against terrorism in Jammu & Kashmir, including the killing of six terrorists of Zakir Musa’s outfit on Saturday, the security establishment is confident of stabilising the situation for the first time in five years.
Having accounted for encounter of nearly 250 terrorists this year, the highest in the last 10 years, the tempo of operations against terrorism will continue even during the harsh winter months with the hope that it may create possibility of holding Assembly elections along with Lok Sabha polls. As of now, apprehensions are there about a spike in terrorism related violence in the run up to the announcement of poll schedule. The security establishment wants to have a firm grip on the situation before giving the nod for holding elections.
Sharing this assessment, sources said the recent months have seen a spate of successful operations against terrorists in which the top leadership of all the terrorist organisations active in the Kashmir valley were killed. Giving an example, they said almost every two days, the security forces have managed to achieve success in the fight against terrorism since October.
Given this factor, the momentum will continue during the ongoing winter months and, if the trend of drop in levels of violence continues, officials are hopeful of stabilising the situation in the strife-torn State by March for the first time in five years.
However, they admitted that there are still 250 terrorists active in the Valley besides 190 new recruits who have joined the terrorist ranks this year as compared to 128 for the entire last year. This spike in recruitment is despite the fact that new untrained fighters are being eliminated routinely 15-20 days after jumping the fence.
Stressing the point that the security forces have the limited task of fighting terrorism, sources said once situation stabilises, the political outreach should begin immediately. The security establishment is hopeful of creating conducive atmosphere for the political process to commence in full swing by March, they said.
Recently, nine-phase long panchayat polls were conducted successfully in the State after local bodies elections.
Meanwhile, several mainstream political parties are demanding early Assembly polls even as the President’s Rule is now on in the State. But till date the security grid is yet to give its formal nod fearing spike in terrorism related violence in the run up to the announcement of poll schedule.
For the time being even the Election Commission of India (ECI) is closely monitoring the ground situation and has not taken any final decision in this regard. Former Chief Minister and National Conference vice president Omar Abdullah has appealed to the Prime Minister to hold Assembly polls on time.
Recently Omar Abdullah in a tweet said, “Sir, please also commit your Government to Assembly elections in J&K. Vested interests, including some occupying positions of authority in J&K, are trying to engineer a delay. Your Government’s handling of J&K will be judged by whether Assembly elections are on time or not sir”.
In another tweet Omar said, “6 months from the date of dissolution means a return to elected Government before the end of May 2019. We look forward to your personal commitment to keeping to that schedule jenab PM sahib”.