Jammu, Jul 12 (IANS): An in-depth review of security arrangements in the mountainous districts of Jammu and Kashmir’s (J&K) Jammu division has revealed that all the mountain tops have remained without permanent deployment of security forces giving the advantage of ‘hit and run’ to terrorists.
It is these rugged, heavily-foliaged and densely-forested areas that have been used by the terrorists to withdraw into and disappear after carrying out attacks on the Army, security forces and civilians.
At a top-level meeting held on Thursday in New Delhi, the Ministry of Defence and Ministry of Home Affairs, decided to deploy Army and CRPF personnel on the higher reaches of all the districts in Jammu division to destroy hideouts and fight terrorists sheltering in the forested areas.
The revival of tourism, education, investment and the return of a modicum of normal life was visible in the record-breaking numbers in which the people participated in the recent Lok Sabha elections.
Irrespective of who won or lost the elections, the biggest victor was democracy as the people of J&K reaffirmed their faith in the country’s democratic edifice.
The peaceful Lok Sabha polls have set the ball rolling for Assembly elections in J&K where an elected government has not been in power since 2018.
The process of updating electoral rolls, meetings with all the 20 District Election Officers by the EC and other formalities are being completed at a fast pace. It is most likely that before the year-end J&K would have its elected Assembly in place.
This seems to have rattled the enemies of peace and of the people of J&K.
Forces lying across the border, who have been watching and bemoaning the undermining of their own democratic institutions, appear to be hell-bent upon trying to subvert the present peace and its fructification into a government run by the representatives of the people.
However, in order to ensure that the present terrorist violence is prevented from spilling over to the relatively-peaceful Valley, an elaborate security plan is being implemented by the Indian government and security forces.
“Groups of terrorists operating in Rajouri, Poonch, Reasi, Kathua and other adjoining areas in Jammu division will soon be neutralised.
“They will be picked out and eliminated and the martyrdom of every Army soldier, policeman, paramilitary jawan and the civilians will be avenged.
“They (terrorists) are here to get their burial ground”, said a determined DGP J&K, RR Swain.
He is one of those police officers who don’t believe in mincing words.
“Terrorism cannot be finished unless its shelters, camouflages and sympathisers are tackled under the law of the land. If you don’t allow others to live in peace, we won’t allow you to live in peace. This message has to go down loud and clear.
“Making sacrifices is nothing new either to our great Army or to the security forces and the local police. But, by making sacrifices alone you don’t end terrorism.
“You have to make the cost of sustaining and supporting terrorism too high for its perpetrators. Those who believe in killing people cannot be allowed to live a free life”, said the police chief.
Intelligence agencies believe that the terrorist handlers operating from across the Line of Control (LoC) have decided to give violence their last push.
“All the so-called sleeper cells, overground workers (OGWs), who had been asked to lie low have been activated and attempts to push in trained mercenaries have already started. “The terror attacks carried out in Jammu region have a clear message. The terrorists have been asked to target innocent civilians and pilgrims to stoke communal tension in Jammu region so that the terrorists get more and more sympathisers in places where a wedge is planned to be created among communities. “Terrorists, most of them foreign mercenaries and ex-convicts, have been asked to selectively choose their targets among the Army and the local police so that these forces remain engaged in anti-terrorist operations while loosening their grip on providing a peaceful environment to economy, industry and education in the Valley”, a top Intelligence officer said.
The choosing of the rugged mountainous terrain of Poonch, Rajouri, Reasi, Doda and Kathua Districts of Jammu region has two advantages in the eyes of the Pakistan-based handlers of terrorism.
“First and most important, the terrorists want to show their presence in areas hitherto believed to be peaceful and where the focus of the security agencies was less sharp than on the Valley.
“Terrorists engaged in the mountainous districts of Jammu division are foreign terrorists, who are familiar with such areas and can withdraw into the thickly-forested areas close to the site of their surprise attacks. “Second, these terrorists have influenced some locals through money, by invoking religious affinity or by appealing to the minority instinct of the population in the Jammu region or simply by threatening them, to act as eyes and ears for them.
“There is no doubt that all the terror attacks carried out in Poonch, Rajouri, Reasi or Kathua District had some local elements involved that provided shelter, logistics and also did recce for the terrorists.
“From the June 9 attack on Hindu pilgrims in Reasi District to the recent July 8 ambush of Army vehicles in Badnota Village of Kathua in which five soldiers were killed and five others injured, the presence of local sympathisers by way of guides and facilitators has been established”, said the Intelligence officer.
Given the determination and will of the Army, security forces and the local police as collectively expressed by the J&K DGP, RR Swain, no terror ecosystem can sustain for long given its inherent anti-people and anti-peace agenda.