Indian Army to become less visible, more lethal in Kashmir

kashmir indian military

In a tactical shift, the Indian Army will be less ‘visible’ on ground in the Kashmir Valley, but more surgical operations will be launched against militants hiding in and around the hinterland.

According to a military estimate, nearly 150 militants are still roaming in parts of south Kashmir and out of these, 89 are local militants and 60 from Pulwama, Anantnag, Kulgam and Shopian districts of South Kashmir.

Focusing on synergised intelligence operations, the Rashtriya Rifles, the Army’s elite counter-insurgency unit, will now involve additional local police while going for an operation.

Earlier, the police were called only after the Army’s operation.

Moreover, Army units are being asked to be less visible in public and have been directed to avoid prolonged encounters. “After military operation, army men should not hang around and not to be exposed to the public,” said a top ranked official in the security establishment.

With minimum presence on ground, the Army’s operation will now be more lethal with specific intelligence inputs.

“The strategy will be to carry out surgical operations to neutralize terrorists and not take credit for it by publicizing the killing,” an official added.

Since the Army does not have a robust crowd controlling mechanism, para-military and local police should rather engage with locals. And whenever, the Army goes for an operation, crowd control can be taken care of by the state police or para-military. Army can focus on its operation. In the last ten days, top Army officials of the Srinagar-based 15 Corps are having several rounds of meeting with the CRPF and state police to work out a future course of action.

“From now on, focus will be on more synergised operations with specific inputs. Involvement of para-military and state police needs to be coordinated with the Army,” the official added.

Army sources claim that this time, protesting crowd is much more violent compare to previous protests over killing of a militant. In some instances, protesters threw grenades on security forces. An official said nearly 150 militants including foreign trained Lashkar-e-toiba were suspected.

However, majority of them are only the local recruits of J&K, who are out of their holes. An intelligence input had warned the security forces six months ago about change in tactics by militants as they were stepping up attempt to recruit ‘locals’ for militancy to keep the pot boiling.

But these local recruits are not adequately trained to engage with security forces for long compared to a trained Lashkar-e-Toiba militant.

Security officials claimed that local recruits were ‘misguided youth’, who were launched with a weapon to fight in the name of jihad.

Moreover, the incidents of snatching weapons from security forces are also rampant. In thelast week, 40 weapons including AK-47 rifles, INSAS rifles, one light machine gun and dozens of magazines and hundreds of rounds of ammunition were looted by youth in South Kashmir.

When asked about the present situation in Kashmir, an official claimed that none including intelligence agencies had anticipated that the killing of 21-year-old Burhan Wani could trigger mass protests in the Valley. He was gunned down in an encounter with security personnel in Kokernag area of South Kashmir on July 8.

The attendance of over one lakh people at Burhan’s funeral in his hometown Tral in South Kashmir’s Pulwama district was an embarrassment for the Mehbooba Mufti-led PDP-BJP government in the State.

 

 

 

 

Source: New Indian Express

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