Militants including top commanders like Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Abu Dujana surfaced at number of rallies without being caught. Heavily armed militants were seen moving freely with guns in their hands in south Kashmir areas.
Indian Army has finally decided to resume counter terrorism operations that had been suspended in south Kashmir after the 'azadi groundswell' following the killing of Hizbul Mujahedeen poster boy Burhan Wani on July 8.
"It is a fact that counter terrorism operations got affected particularly in areas of south Kashmir. A deliberate and considerate decision has been taken that wherever there are terrorists we will go after them. That is going to start in real earnest," Lieutenant General DS Hooda, general officer commanding in chief (GoC-in-C) of Northern Command told reporters here.
Counter terrorism grid has literally become redundant and dysfunctional given the fact security forces was unable to go after the militants because of the massive protests and stone pelting. Sources said militants literally had a free run and the unrest allowed them to regroup in south Kashmir.
Militants including top commanders like Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Abu Dujana surfaced at number of rallies without being caught. Heavily armed militants were seen moving freely with guns in their hands in south Kashmir areas.
Sources said for the last 42 days only one anti-militancy operations was conducted in Kashmir that too by chance when militants killed a commandant of CRPF and then holed themselves up in Nowhatta area of Srinagar.
Only counter infiltration grid was active with troops deployed on Line of Control foiling so may infiltration bids killing several militants in Baramulla and Kupwara districts.
"It was not that it (operations) was totally suspended. In north Kashmir you did see the counter terrorist operations being conducted. You have seen Bahadur Ali (Pakistani militant) was caught and four terrorists were killed along the LoC. Counter infiltration operation is going on. In south Kashmir we are going to restart. It is a matter of concern," the army commander said
Echoing Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti, he said there was no specific information about Burhan Wani's presence the security forces launched the operation on July 8.
"It was not a staged encounter. It was no finished in two and half minutes. Specific information of Burhan Wani being there (in the house at Bamdoora village) was not there," he said
Appealing for calm, the Northern Army Commander said everyone needs to step back and sit together to find a way out of the current situation.
"Cycle of conflict and violence has been going on for more than 40 days now and no one is going to get away from it unhurt. My appeal is to everyone for calm…. We have to sit down, put our heads together and see if we can find an end to this… So everybody, who is in anyway involved in J&K, needs to introspect and see what we can do to stop it," he said
Elaborating, he said it is not a political statement but is a statement of facts because everybody is involved, whether it is security forces, whether it is separatists, governments, student leaders. "My appeal is to everyone. We need to find a way forward from this. It is not one person or one organisation which can do this," he said
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