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| Gool once hub of militants fast returning to normalcy | | | Early Times Reporter
Jammu | Jan 21
Gool area once the hub of terrorists is fast returning to normalcy and the scourge of terrorism that was first witnessed in the area in 1991 has started dying down with the elimination of scores of hardcore terrorists and surrender by others.
The terrorists after having infiltrated from across the Line of Control used to stop in Sumber area while moving to the Kashmir Valley. The first known terrorist in the area was Amanulla Pir, a resident of Sumber who became active in 1991. With the passage of time and lack of deployment of security forces, terrorism engulfed the entire area of Gool and by 1995 there were reportedly about 200 terrorists operating in the area. Very soon the terrorists started unfolding their twin agenda of targeting the minority community and rendering the Civil Administration defunct.
A spate of violence was unleashed in the period 1993-96, wherein, the police station at Gool was burnt down, five sarpanches of local villages who took part in elections were killed, and 20 schools were burnt down, the Principal and two lecturers of Higher Secondary School, Gool, killed. This triggered a mass migration of the minority community as also of most of the government officials including the Magistrate and Tehsildar. Sensing that the situation was nearing a point of no return, Para Military Forces were deployed in Gool in 1993 but the situation continued to deteriorate and the normalcy graph touched its lowest ebb in 2003 with the killing and looting of an entire Indian Reserve Police platoon post. Uniform Force thereafter took over the area and deployed its forces in May 2005.
Army adopted a two-pronged counter terrorism strategy of targeting the terrorist leadership and encouraging surrenders of the local cadres while on the other hand ushering development in the area by excluding need based projects under “Operation Sadbhavana”. In a short span of two and half years nearly 70 terrorists were neutralized. Important HM terrorist including Amanulla Pir, District Commander the infamous father of Gool terrorism and his three successors i.e Jannat Gool in 2003, Billu Gujjar and Mohammed Sharief in 2006 were eliminated. The death knell for the HM was sounded by the elimination of Azaz Ahmed Choupan @ Kari, the operational commander for District Ramban, a known IED expert, in Aug 2007. The LeT leadership and rank and file were also not spared. Intelligence based personality oriented targeting led to the elimination of Abu Adil, District Commander LeT in Nov 05. His successor Abu Abdulla in Aug 06 and the dreaded trio of foreign terrorists Abu Suffian, Abu Bilal, Abu Salem in Jan 2007 and Abu Omar in Dec 2007.
Effective Counter Terrorist operations strategy of Uniform Force in Gool and adjoining areas further maintained itself in the mass surrender of a major group of HM cadre at Rambari on Dececember 23 last. The militants were forced to surrender due to relentless pressure of security forces; besides weaning those away from the master by way of people friendly Operation Sadbhavana. The effect of this is reverberating in entire Jammu and Kashmir with similar surrender by HM tanzeems in other areas.
In addition to reverse migration of minorities, the region is also witnessing all round development activities and frequent visits by senior political and civil administration functionaries. The graph of terrorism in Gool has taken a nosedive, the JKP is rejuvenated and the civil administration is resurgent. It is only a matter of time before complete normalcy is restored in the area which will pave the way for its overall development and prosperity for the people of the region, |
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