The strategy to neutralise the top leadership of the biggest terrorist outfits operating in the Valley, partially in south Kashmir, was adopted by the Indian Army since the beginning of the year. As a plan Jammu and Kashmir Police was to be kept in the loop as part of joint operations.
since the past three decades, these two biggest terrorist outfits—Hizbul Mujahideen and Lashkar-e-Taiba—are at their lowest ebb. After the killing of Hizb’s Burhan Wani for a brief period the region had gone into a new cycle of violence with a sort of a new lease of life to the.
The outfits have lost almost 90 percent of their leadership as the killing of terrorist by security forces has become almost a daily affair. Kashmir has become quite used to the hunting down of these cold blooded terrorists on a routine basis. Over 9,000 people just watched a football match in Srinagar, when six militants, a civilian, and an Indian Army soldier were killed on Sunday in south Kashmir’s Shopian district.
Intelligence operators worked day and night, with proper coordination and focused energy on targeting the topmost leadership to dissuade local cadre and avoid further recruitment. The results have started showing: At least 225 terrorists, a majority of them Pakistan trained, have been killed this year, including many district commanders.
“The recruitment has come down significantly”, “Just this month, at least 31 terrorists have been killed in Kashmir, most of them in Shopian district.”
Umar Majeed Ganaie, one of the gunned down terrorist who was operating as district commander of Hizb for Kulgam, was recently seen in the heart of Srinagar city, Lal Chowk, in a picture that went viral on social media. He was active since 2016.
“He was involved in the Pombai Bank guard attack case in which four policemen and two bank guards had lost their lives in 2017,” a police statement said.
Two more terrorist commanders killed in Sunday shootout were Mushtaq Ahmad Mir, LeT’s district commander for Shopian, and Mohammad Abass, district commander of Hizb for Shopian.
On Saturday, in another encounter in Bijbehara, three commanders of Lashkar-e-Toiba and Hizbul Mujahideen were among six terrorists killed in a gunfight with forces. Police say Pakistan-based terrorist outfit, Lashkar, headed by Chief terrorist Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, has lost almost all of its commanders in south Kashmir, for the first time since a renewed face of insurgency the Kashmir Valley, after the killing of Burhan Wani in June 2016.
After Wani’s killing, the terrorist outfit, which had earlier banked upon the Pakistani nationals, most of them drawn from Punjab, are slowly trying to hand over the baton of managing the terrorism to local Kashmiris but finding few takers.
Azad Ahmad Malik, who was killed in Saturday’s encounter, had joined terrorism in 2016 and become a top commander of Lashkar and a close aide of another top commander of the outfit, Naveed Jutt. Malik, 30, was listed as category A++ terrorist and carrying a bounty of Rs 12 lakh on his head.
In August, LeT commander Abu Dujana, a Pakistani national, was killed by forces in Hakripora area of Pulwama district. He was a category ‘ ‘A++’ terrorist and carried a reward of Rs 10 lakh on his head.
Another top LeT commander, Bashir Lashkari, was killed in Anantnag’s Brenti village of Dialgam on 1 July. Lashkari, according to police, was involved in the killing of six policemen in the district.
On 28 May, Hizb terrorist Sabzar Ahmad Bhat, who was a close associate of slain Hizb commander Burhan Wani, was among the two terrorist killed in an encounter in Tral. On 12 July, Sajad Gilkar was killed by security forces in Budgam district of central Kashmir.
The terrorists have lost some of the most known faces in Kashmir since the past two years including the 22-year-old Majid Zargar, who survived for four years. Another top commander of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Muhammad Ayub Lone alias Ayub Lelhari was killed in an ambush laid on the Pulwama-Srinagar stretch.
Another top Lashkar-e-Taiba Junaid Mattoo was killed in a gun battle that took place in Anantnag. So was Shakoor Ahmed Dar of LeT, who joined the group in October 2016, and was killed in June this year. Abu Ismail, a Pakistani national and top LeT commander in Kashmir under whose guidance the organisation swelled in the Valley, was killed in September last year.
These self-styled district commanders played a key role in the recruitment when the Valley was witnessing turmoil after the killing of Burhan Wani, particularly in the southern region of Kashmir.
Along with the elimination if terrorists, there is need to reach out politically directly to the members of the freshly elected Panchayats. Aim must be to empower them to the hilt to help them to carry out economic development at the grass root level.
