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| Militant activities likely to escalate in coming days | | | Bashir Assad
Jammu, Mar 30: As Lok Sabha elections draw closer, there is every possibility that the militants carry out deadly attacks all across the state to instill fear among the people. The latest incidents of militant strike in Kathua district on Friday, an IED detected in the Srinagar outskirts on Saturday morning and a police cop attacked in south Kashmir in the Saturday afternoon are an indication of the new militant strategy of engaging the security forces from Kupwara to Kathua.
As the state gears up for the Lok Sabha elections followed by assembly elections later this year, the militants from within and outside have started to target the security forces on one hand and on the other hand the political activist of the mainstream political parties may also be targeted to enforce the boycott call given by the separatists. The security agencies also attribute the increase in militant activities to the withdrawal of NATO forces from Afghanistan staring soon.
But as of now, the sole purpose of rising militant activities is to instill fear among the people which is evident from the fact that after the election dates were announced, two Pakistani militants of Lashker-e-Toiba (LeT), a militant of Jaish-e-Mohammad hailing from Pakistan, and an 85-year-old man, whose son was associated with the Opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), were killed in separate incidents. Besides, two policemen were killed and an Army Colonel of elite counter-insurgency unit survived a militant attack earlier this month.
Though killing of an old man who happened to be the father of a political activist is not sufficient to judge that militants will target the upcoming polls, the security agencies said militants in the past had always tried to disrupt the poll process in the state and this time, too, they would create disturbance. They said the separatists' call for poll boycott might be another reason for militants to disrupt the poll process.
"The militants may try to attack soft targets to instill fear in voters, but the security agencies have been asked to be on their guard to ensure peaceful polls," said an official. "Militants usually become hyperactive when the elections are around the corner. Their commander from the PoK (Pakistan-occupied Kashmir) may have also asked them to step up attack on security forces," the official said.
To meet any eventuality, the J&K police and other security agencies have started mobilizing the manpower from the existing anti-militancy grid comprising the J&K police, Army and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF). The Union government has already deployed 60 battalions of paramilitary CRPF in the state out of which 48, comprising nearly 50,000 men, are deployed in the Valley to tackle anti-militancy and law and order situation.
Twenty-three battalions have been deployed in Srinagar and the rest have been stationed in other districts of the Valley. However, in the days to come the security forces have to face the challenge of ensuring the security of polling personnel, voters at polling stations and material to be used in the process.
While the J&K police and other paramilitary forces are gearing up for polls, the Army's counter-infiltration grid and counter-insurgency battalion have been told to be vigilant.
Sixty-two battalion of the Rashtriya Rifles (RR) in the Valley are involved in anti-militancy operations.
The elections in the state coincide with the time when snow in the higher regions would melt and militants might try to infiltrate into Kashmir. The Army, which guards the Line of Control (LoC), claims that it was fully prepared for the polls. |
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