Ishtiyaq Ahmad
Early Times Report
srinagar, Jan 8: On December 30, last year, four Jaish-e-Muhammad militants were killed in an encounter with the security forces at Rajpora in Pulwama and the gunfight was declared as the last one of the year 2018.
Barely after four days of Rajpora encounter, the New Year's first gun-battle broke out in Tral again in southern Pulwama district resulting in the killing of three militants and a soldier.
Three days after Pulwama encounter, Aripal witnessed another gunfight, second in the area and also second in the New Year that saw the killing of top Hizbul Mujaheen commander Hamaad.
Top security officials believe that amid surge in the local militant recruitment after the killing of new age Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in July 2016, a strong effort was put by the joint teams of police, army and the CRPF with primary focus on Pulwama and Shopian districts.
"Though all the districts of southern Kashmir were declared hypersensitive in terms of militant activities but extra efforts were used to flush out militants from Pulwama and Shopian. These two districts witnessed local recruitment," a top intelligence officer said wishing not to be named. The officer said that Kulgam and Anantnag also contributed to militant recruitment since July 2016 but Pulwama and Shopian took a lead.
A senior police officer said that in a bid to wipe-out militancy from south Kashmir, a multi-pronged strategy was adopted that includes choking the all supply lines for the militants, launching frequent searches to push them out of their hide-outs.
According to police, the number of militants killed in 2018 was highest in a decade. "Yes, after 2007, this is for the first time that such a large number of militants were killed in counter insurgency operations in Kashmir," a police source said.
An army officer revealed that a series of public contact programs launched across south Kashmir helped increase human intelligence that led to the flow of credible information about the presence of militants and their hide-outs. "At times, human intelligence was supported by the technical intelligence. Otherwise, technical intelligence is employed at the line of control (LoC) to check the movement of infiltrators," he said, wishing not to be named. |
