69 militants killed this year: Army

Azhar Qadri

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, April 24

Senior security officers on Wednesday said a massive offensive against foreign militants has severely impacted the insurgency in the Kashmir valley and also claimed that militant recruitment has drastically dropped in recent months.

Addressing a press conference here, General Officer Commanding of Srinagar-based 15 Corps Lt Gen KJS Dhillon and Director General of Police Dilbag Singh said 69 militants had been killed so far this year and 12 had been arrested.

The Army commander said 41 militant were killed in the aftermath of the Pulwama suicide bombing in February. “Out of them, 25 belonged to the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) outfit and 13 were Pakistanis and category A militants,” he said.

“We have targeted Jaish leadership and the situation now is that no one is coming forward to take over the leadership of the JeM in the Valley,” he said.

The state police chief said there were “satisfying” trends in the counter-insurgency campaign as the recruitment of youth into militancy had drastically decreased, surrenders had increased and civilian protests during anti-militant operations had also reduced.

The DGP said the killing of more than 270 militants last year and continued counter-insurgency operations this year in which many foreign militants of the Lashkar-e-Toiba and JeM were neutralised had “dented militancy”.

He said the focus in recent weeks had been to conduct the elections peacefully due to which engagement with militants had “lessened”. “But the (counter-insurgency) operations are on,” he said.

The GOC said the biweekly restriction on civilian traffic along the highway was being eased and described it as a “temporary measure”. He said the restrictions would be further relaxed once the elections are over.

A militant from Pakistan, who was arrested on Monday near north Kashmir’s Pattan town, was also produced before the media with the state police chief saying that he was a “live evidence” of neighbouring country’s involvement in militancy.

Identifying himself as Waqar Awan, the militant said he was a resident of Pakistan’s Punjab province. He said he trained for four months in Pakistan and infiltrated into the Kashmir Valley in July 2017.

Baramulla SSP Abdul Qayoom said the militant had initially operated in the Handwara area of north Kashmir and later shifted base to Srinagar where he operated for past two years.

The district police chief said the militant was apprehended when he was on way to Baramulla, which was recently declared “militant-free”, with an aim to revive militancy.