The state police has drawn up an elaborate plan to set up five more police districts, in addition to the already existing ones, to effectively fight militancy. The plan has been approved, according to sources in the police department. The proposed districts are coming up in Ganderbal, Kulgam and Awantipur in the valley and Ramban and Jammu city (South) in the Jammu region. The state director general of police (DGP) Gurbachan Jagat is anchoring the new strategy.
It has been felt necessary to carve out the five additional districts after some serious thinking about the anti-insurgency operations. The most important realisation has been that the so-called residual militancy might not be that easy to wipe out as long as the influx continues from across the border. With the opening up of the mountain passes into the valley, there are reports indicating that groups of thirty to forty foreign militants, accompanied by one or two guides, are sneaking into the valley and spreading, out despite heavy deployment of forces to check such an influx. The final destination of these foreign militants appears to be the areas in and around the strategic locations situated in the districts of Srinagar, Kupwara, Ramban, Doda and Udhampur.
What has been turning into a major problem for the security forces is that these new groups are not, for the moment, establishing direct contact with the deployed forces by engaging them in encounters. Only in incidents where the security forces act on specific tip-offs have there been engagements between the militants and the forces during the last four months. During such encounters also, according to the local general officer commanding (GOC) & mountain division, major general J B S Yadava, the Army has to be extremely careful to avoid collateral damage that takes place.
The GOC also believes that the re-activation of the local police has been producing fruitful results but he accepts the fact that the present level of violence might be a long drawn affair given the fact that militancy is still aided and abetted by our neighbour. The proposed police districts, according to the plan, would continue to be part of their revenue districts for administrative purposes, but would function as cohesive anti-insurgency districts to provide vital inputs for breaking the last resistance offered by the hardcore and highly motivated militants whose surrenders are not that easily forthcoming. Coupled with this is the fact that the control of militancy, as per state Intelligence, has passed into the hands of foreign militants with the local element working as guides, harbourers and informers for them.
The efficacy of the counter-insurgent groups is fast on the decline according to security force officials under whom these groups have been working. They have exhausted their information pools and are presently cut-off from the ground, remaining in most cases confined to the secured locations and aspiring for rehabilitation.
Reports available with the state Intelligence suggest that the recycling of released militants is another problem that needs to be attended to by keeping a close watch on their movements.
