Strategy framed to check civilian killings in Kashmir
Top police, CRPF, BSF, Intl officers brief Sinha on Ops
Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Nov 9: A day after formal shifting of the office to Jammu, Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha today reviewed security situation in Jammu and Kashmir with top officials of police, para-military forces and Intelligence agencies in which some senior officers from Kashmir division also participated.
This was first major security review taken by the Lieutenant Governor after targeted civilian killings in Kashmir, the latest of which took place yesterday when Salesman of a Kashmiri Pandit owned shop was shot dead by the militants in Srinagar.
Director General of Police (DGP) Dilbag Singh, Director General CID Rashmi Ranjan Swain, Additional DGP Jammu Zone Mukesh Singh and IGP Kashmir Vijay Kumar briefed Sinha on various aspects of the situation besides senior officers of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Border Security Force (BSF) and Intelligence Bureau (IB).
While there was no official word on the meeting, sources told the Excelsior that targeted killings in Kashmir and ongoing operations against the militants in twin border districts of Rajouri and Poonch came up for discussions.
“The Government is concerned about no let up in targeted killings despite several measures like deployment of additional para-military and police forces in Srinagar and other sensitive areas, identification and protection of soft targets and raising more bunkers to keep vigil on hybrid militants, who are engaged in civilian killings,” sources said.
They added that top officials of police and para-military forces reportedly briefed the Lieutenant Governor about more steps being taken to check targeted killings of civilians including non-locals and those from minorities besides identification of hybrid militants and arresting them to contain fresh spell of violence.
“Stepping up of anti-militancy operations across the Valley during winters was also discussed,” sources said, adding that the operations will be intensified in winters when the militant groups hiding in mountains generally come down in view of heavy snowfall.
Swift intelligence gathering about the hybrid militants was also discussed.
Worthwhile to mention here that a large number of militants have been killed in the Kashmir valley this year which include top commanders of various outfits.
On the other, 12 civilians including non-locals and those from minorities have been killed by the militants during past about one month in Kashmir indicating surge in the killings of innocent people.
“A strategy is in place to check the civilian killings. It was further discussed in the meeting,” sources said and added that the Government wants an end to the civilian killings as it was creating fear psychosis among the minorities and non-locals, thus, defeating the Central Government initiatives taken in Jammu and Kashmir.
While anti-militancy situation in the Jammu region is well under control, the police officials were reported to have briefed the Lieutenant Governor about ongoing operations against groups of militants at Bhatta Durrian forests in Mendhar, Panghai and Khablan in Thannamandi and surroundings in the twin border districts of Poonch and Rajouri, sources said.
On Thursday, one of the longest search operations in the Poonch forests will complete one month.
It was on October 11 that security forces had established first contact with the hiding militants at Chamrer forests in Surankote tehsil of Poonch district in which five Army personnel including a Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO) were martyred. Second contact took place on October 14 at Bhatta Durrian forests of Mendhar in which four troopers, one of them a JCO, lost their lives. A total of nine solders have been martyred so far in the ongoing operations.
Security forces have also killed nine militants prior to these operations in Rajouri and Poonch districts this year.
The officials, however, couldn’t say as to whether the militants have managed to escape from the forests or were still hiding there.
As reported, eight terror operatives who had facilitated the movement of militants in the forests areas of Mendhar and Thannamandi have been arrested so far while some more arrests are on the cards.
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