Army Special Forces Hunting Down Hafeez’s Hyenas In Ganderbal Area
One of the biggest anti-terrorist operations have been launched in the Kashmir Valley after the central government carried a reorganization of the state into two union territories and removed the unwarranted and very much outdated Article 370 of the Constitution.
A massive military operation to hunt down the hiding terrorists is underway since last ten days in Gangbal forest areas of Ganderbal district in central Kashmir. When two terrorists were killed by army units after they had infiltrated the Line of Control, it was revealed that they were part of a very large group. This is first killing of a terrorist in this area since 2014.
Thus the Parachute Special Forces of the Army slithered down the helicopters in the inhospitable remote mountainous region, which has no road access, to hunt down these despicables.
The Special Forces have spread across the mountainous terrain for carrying out a Shikar operations against this big group of terrorists who have infiltrated LoC from remote Gurez area of Bandipora district and are trying to move towards the Tral town in south Kashmir on this traditional route.
Gangbal is a mountainous area, with a large fresh water lake located in between Gurez and Ganderbal districts. It also connects to the mountains surrounding Srinagar and south Kashmir. The lake is a favourite of foreign tourists for camping and trekking.
Even as the operation is underway, there are a few tourists who are travelling in the area. The police are now mulling to keep a record of the visitors as their vulnerability has increased.
These terrorists, police believe, have used this traditional route after many years. “It takes three to four days of trekking through rough mountainous terrain from LoC in Gurez to Gangbal,” SSP Poswal told News18. “This route connects to the peripheries of Srinagar and around seven hours of trek leads to Tral town.”
Tral, the hometown of slain Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani, has been a terrorist hot-bed for many years. The road in the area ends at a village called Naranag, around 40 kilometres towards the north-east of Srinagar. The location of the operation area is around after a 17km trekking in the mountains. Hence for a timely action, SF were inserted into the area through a heliborne operation.
On September 30, locals in Naranag said that around 15 people from the village were picked up by army and police, and were taken to the encounter sight to carry the terrorist bodies from the location to the nearest graveyard. The locals said they later buried the slain terrorists.
“We were taken to a location called Churnard and there were two dead bodies in a deep gorge,” locals in Naranag village said, wishing to be anonymous. “It took us almost one day to carry each dead body and we were with the army for two nights,” the locals said.
Police also confirmed that the terrorists were buried in the graveyard in the same area.
The terrorists could not be identified, SSP Poswal said, that is why they were buried there after DNA samples were collected.
A team of two doctors and four other members of medical staff were taken from the hospital for the medical formalities. “The doctors trekked and collected the DNA samples,” he said.
The DNA report is yet to come, but a family from north Kashmir’s Sopore has claimed that one among the slain is their son, who had crossed over to Pakistan on proper passport through Wagah crossing in April 2018.
Both the Army and Police were taken by surprise by the claim as they wondered how the family learnt about the death as the phone and internet services are snapped in Kashmir.
The police said the family came to believe that their son was killed in the military operation after a relative in Delhi saw the claim in a Facebook post by a person based in Saudi Arabia and relayed the information to them.
As per police, the family said that their son, Kamar-Ud-Din, had left for Nepal from his home. But he went to Pakistan and was listed by forces as C-category terrorist.
The area of the operation has been closed for the civilian movement and journalists don’t have access to the place. After massive chopper movement, there were rumours among the locals that the Army suffered causalities. However, authorities have denied this and called the rumour baseless.
Since August 5, sightings of terrorists has increased but forces are not able to conduct operations in the residential areas of the Valley. As per police sources, over 450 terrorist sightings have been reported and there have been around 650 search operations. However, only three operations led to gunfights in which terrorists were killed.
The forces believe that terrorists are trying hard to infiltrate into Kashmir valley. Even, as per top police officials, around 60 terrorists have infiltrated into the valley in last two months.
