Security forces to be tougher on militancy

Srinagar: The counterinsurgency efforts in Jammu and Kashmir are being intensified as the home ministry with all powerful Amit Shah holding the fort in its North Block headquarters has asked the security forces to get tougher on militants and their active sympathisers in the state.

The official sources here said that the cordon-and-search operations will be carried out in a major way in south Kashmir and other militancy-infested parts of the Kashmir Valley in coming weeks. Expanded surveillance and human intelligence gathering will be other major features of augmented anti-militancy operations, the sources added.

At a series of meetings he has held with top officials of various security and intelligence agencies past week, the home minister is reported to have asked them to carry forward the government’s zero-tolerance policy towards terrorism and violence in Kashmir Valley “more potently and vigorously”.

J&K police, the Army and other security forces have also been directed to take all necessary strong step to ensure militancy does not resurface in the Chenab valley of the State’s Jammu region following reports that some of the militants in the face of mounting pressure from the security forces in the Kashmir Valley may cross the ridgeline that separates it from eastern Kishtwar and Doda districts considered more “accommodative” for carrying out militant activities.

Back in the Valley, the security forces have drawn a new plan to make it a ‘fight to the finish’ while taking on militants and also put the thumbscrews on their sympathisers in south Kashmir comprising Kulgam, Anantnag, Shopian and Pulwama districts which has witnessed surge in violence and anti-India protests in past couple of years. The noose is being tightened around particularly top commanders of various militant outfits, the sources said.

The Home Ministry has on the basis of inputs from J&K police, the Army, CRPF and other Central armed forces and various intelligence agencies prepared a list of ten “most wanted” militants operating in the State and assigned the counterinsurgency grid the chiefly task to eliminate them as soon as possible. Six of them belong to Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM), two to Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) and one each to Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT) and Al-Badr Mujahideen, the sources said.

They are Riyaz Ahmed Naikoo alias Muhammad Bin Qasim, Muhammad Ashraf Khan, Merajuddin, Dr. Saifullah, Arshad-ul-Haq and Aijaz Ahmed Malik (all HM), Javed Mattoo alias Faisal alias Saqib alias Musaib of Al-Badr, Hafiz Umar and Zahid Sheikh alias Omar Afghani of the JeM and LeT’s chief commander Wasim Ahmed alias Osama.

The officials said that already the security forces combating a three-decade old insurgency in J&K have achieved major successes against the militants in past couple of years. In 2018, as many as 260 militants (the highest in a single year in eight years) including several commanders were killed whereas more than 100 have been “neutralised”, so far this year. However, while nearly 100 soldiers and other security personnel had to lay down their lives in the line of duty last year, sixty-one of them have died while fighting militants or in terror acts in the first five months of this year. Sixteen civilians have also lost their lives in violence, so far, this year, they said.

A senior police officer who spoke to this newspaper on condition of anonymity said, “The security forces have been asked to go very tough on the militants and given a free hand to conduct operations against them as per their own assessments and operational objectives. They have also been told not to be distracted by criticism of separatist political groups or mainstream parties”.