Situation in Valley improved after 2019: IG CRPF
Fayaz Bukhari
Srinagar, Feb 14: Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) Kashmir, Vijay Kumar today said that relentless operations after Pulwama attack has led to killing of all Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) who were operating in the Valley at that time.
Speaking to the media persons after paying tribute to the CRPF men at Pulwama, Kumar said that after the Pulwama attack security forces killed all the JeM militants who were operating in the Valley at that time.
He said that presently 7-8 local militants of JeM and 5-7 Pakistanis are operating in Kashmir. Among them is Moosa Sulaimani who is based in Kulgam. “We are after him (Sulaimani) and he will be neutralized soon,” he said.
Kumar said that for the last six months JeM is again recruiting locals into its fold. “Last week we arrested six associates of Jaish in Kulgam and one in Puwlama. We will not allow Jaish to grow”, he said.
“Their major focus is on small weapons like pistols, grenades and sticky bombs and we are busting small modules and our emphasis also on narcotics,” he added.
Kumar said that out of 19 militants involved in the Pulwama attack, eight were killed, seven arrested while four including 3 Pakistanis are still alive.
The ADGP said the security forces are after Jaish-e-Muhammad and almost all their top commanders have been neutralized.
He said they are busting militant modules, especially they are after narco-terrorism and militancy funding. “We have been able to recover Rs 41 lakh and recently in Baramulla, Rs 26 lakh have been recovered,” he said while replying to a query.
He also said the cases registered against OGWs involved in such activities are being disposed of at a rapid pace. “The number of such cases have reduced from 1600 in October last year to 950 at present and 13 convictions have also been made so far,” he said.
Kumar said that a total of 37 local militants are presently active and that only two among them including Farooq Nalli and Riyaz Chatri are old while rest have joined recently.
Meanwhile, Inspector General Operations Sector CRPF, M S Bhatia said the situation has improved on the ground since Pulwama attack and such attacks will never happen given the measures taken by the security forces.
“There is remarkable progress after the attack in 2019, militant modules are being busted, their ecosystem is being busted, we are sure that this kind of attack will not happen again,” he said.
Bhatia said the attacks on minority communities are acts of cowardice and those behind such attacks have been killed while measures have been taken to prevent such attacks.
“We are determined to protect minorities and in this regard several modules involved have been neutralized. The CRPF and Police and other security forces have been ensuring protection to the minority community and we will ensure proper security to them,” he added.
The CRPF officer said the modules are being busted before they carry out any major damage. “We are always taking action in the beginning and neutralizing the module when it takes birth. You have seen several encounters have taken place last year, we are trying to deny that space to militants to execute any major damage,” he added.
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