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| 2012 saw spurt in militant activities, decline in casualties | | | Bashir Assad
JAMMU, Dec 25: The relatively calm 2012 which began on a worrying note as far the militancy related incidents were concerned but ended on a positive note in the sense that the death toll in the militancy related incidents was much less as compared to 2011. But the year saw spurt in militant activities in as much as the abrupt strikes by militants took every body by surprise. Though during the last couple of months security agencies neutralized some 20 to 25 militants mostly in search operations but the first and second quarters of the year witnessed abrupt increase in militant strikes.
As the year approached towards it end militant activities saw a decline and barring some isolated incidents like Silver Star Shootout followed by Bijbehara, Sopore, Parimpora grenade blasts, it was police and security forces who strategically dominated the show by launching search operations and neutralized some 20 to 25 hardcore militants belonging to Hizbul Mujahideen and LeT. However, security of over 20,000 Panches and Sarpanches was a big challenge for the security agencies and the civil and police administration owing to the threats and target killing of some of the Panches and Sarpanches in Kashmir valley. The threat, however, receded as there were no major attacks till September when two of them were shot dead by militants within a span of fortnight in Baramulla. However, there were several attacks on Panches and Sarpanches followed by dictates asking them to quit or face the consequences. Some panchayat members tendered their resignations while many more announced their resignations through paid advertisements in local newspapers. This led to a wave of resignations, however, at the end of the day 93% of elected Panches and Sarpanches participated in elections to the 4 reserved MLC seats and only 520 out of total 33000 Panches and Sarpanches did not exercise their right to vote for varying reasons.
In the middle of the year between June, July and August the defence analysts feared revival of militancy because the militants were putting all out efforts in rejuvenating their cadres and even police and security officials were clueless about the kind of militancy the State was confronting during that period because most of the new recruits had no militant background. But soon the police and security agencies busted some important modules involving personnel from even J&K Police which was, of course, turning point in the game because the security forces could now pick up the threads and could sneak deep into the network.
Though the security and police forces are completely dominating the scenario now, however, defense analysts and Kashmir watchers believe that the militancy in Kashmir, being influenced by the external factors can be unpredictable at times depending on how their mentors across the border could place them. Director General of J&K Police very recently claimed that only a few dozen of militants were active in J&K but the local recruits are always the cause of concern that too in a situation when most of them have no militant background and at times it takes months together to the security agencies to ascertain their credentials and identify them.
Very recently a senior police officer told Early Times that in South Kashmir alone some highly qualified people including some software engineers had joined the militant cadres and fortunately police timely cracked the modules and arrested most of them due to which major strikes could be averted. However, planting mines on road sides particularly along Srinagar-Jammu National Highway still remains a cause of concern for the security agencies. And while drawing a comparison of mine blasts or defusing mine explosives 2012 witnessed spurt in such cases as compared to 2011. This only suggests that militants have evolved a multi-pronged strategy in an attempt to make their presence felt and to that extent they have succeeded.
On the other hand right from the first quarter of the year intelligence reports pointed to possibility of increased infiltration bids by militants from across the LoC to step up violence. The reports proved correct because the number of infiltration attempts during the year were much more than the corresponding period in 2011. Security agencies are putting the number of infiltration attempts at 18 out of which 15 attempts were foiled and 5 militants neutralized, however, MAC puts the number of militants who infiltrated during the year at 118.
However, the security situation during the year was mostly peaceful owing to the fact that civilian casualties other than sporadic attacks on police officials and Panches and Sarpanches during the year was almost insignificant. |
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