Director General of Police, Dilbag Singh, in a recent interaction with media in Jammu said that significant strides have been made in curbing militancy in J&K and emphasized that the focus is not merely containing terrorism, but eliminating it altogether. Singh underlined that 99 percent of infiltration attempts from Pakistan have been successfully thwarted this year alone. He attributed this success to the heightened vigilance and the tightening of the border security grid.
Over the past two months, there have been multiple instances of interception, leading to the killing of nearly a dozen infiltrators and the seizure of substantial caches of weapons, explosives, and narcotics. However, as the DGP himself acknowledged, the challenges remain. There have been recurrent attempts to send IEDs and weaponry from across the border, some of which seem to have succeeded. A recent incident involving the discovery of an IED in Nagrota served as a reminder of these dangers. Similarly, militants in South Kashmir’s Kulgam killed three security personnel during a recent encounter. What is more, Poonch and Rajouri districts in Jammu have witnessed a certain revival of militancy since 2021. This year, so far, ten security personnel have been killed in the twin districts in two successive encounters. And what is particularly concerning for the security agencies is that the forest area where the militants are hiding extends to Shopian in South Kashmir, the district that has been a hotbed of militancy in recent years. But the militants have largely chosen to stay in Jammu only, possibly because the region has a lower concentration of security forces than the Valley and also a warmer climate throughout the year. The security agencies believe they are the highly trained militants since they most probably come from across the border.
If anything, it shows that despite the drastic reduction in the number of militants in recent years, militancy lingers in some form. More importantly, militancy is now largely sustained by the infiltration. But with more counter-infiltration measures the situation could be brought under control. The government, according to Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, is now working on a plan to replicate the counterinsurgency strategy adopted in Kashmir Valley, to curb the rising violence in Jammu. This includes identification and arrest of over-ground supporters of militants, proactive counter-insurgency operations, deployment of police, Army, Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) and night patrolling and area domination, which are believed to have helped check infiltration to a large extent in the Kashmir region. Here’s one approach that we would like the administration to follow: the political outreach. In past, this approach has made a redeeming difference to the situation.
Follow this link to join our WhatsApp group: Join Now
Be Part of Quality Journalism |
Quality journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce and despite all the hardships we still do it. Our reporters and editors are working overtime in Kashmir and beyond to cover what you care about, break big stories, and expose injustices that can change lives. Today more people are reading Kashmir Observer than ever, but only a handful are paying while advertising revenues are falling fast. |
| ACT NOW |
| MONTHLY | Rs 100 |  |
| YEARLY | Rs 1000 | |
| LIFETIME | Rs 10000 | |
