New Delhi [India], Aug.21 (ANI): The period preceding Kargil Vijay Diwas (Day) on 26 July, till after Independence Day in Kashmir Valley, has been marked by the elimination of over 120 terrorists, and at long last, the apprehension of the separatists' henchmen involved in funding and organizing terrorist and stone-pelting/heckling activities.
General Officer Commanding-in-Chief (GOC-in-C) Northern Command, Lt. Gen. Devraj Anbu, attended the 'Kargil Vijay Diwas' ceremony at Drass, the second highest extreme cold area of the world in Kargil district, to honour the martyrs and interacted with some of their families and other war heroes present.
Speaking to media at Drass, he assured that a Kargil-like situation will not be allowed to happen again and that the troops are totally prepared to meet any eventuality.
Regarding the overall security situation in the Kashmir Valley, Lt. Gen. Anbu said: "Army and other security agencies are working in close coordination to carry out anti-militancy operations and they have achieved many successes in the recent past, both along LoC as well as hinterland. He said it was because of the close coordination that security forces eliminated 36 militants, including some self-styled commander in the Valley during the past three months. "Alert troops also foiled a number of infiltration attempt from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK)," he said, adding that scores of militants were gunned down immediately after they sneaked into this side, while a large number of trained militants are waiting at launch pads near the Line of Control (LoC) in PoK to enter this side before the infiltration routes are closed due to snowfall. Lt Gen Anbu said relations between the people in Kashmir and Indian Army were strengthening day by day and as a result, more than 14,500 students are getting education in 45 Army Goodwill Schools all over Jammu and Kashmir. "This has helped more than 1,000 local youths to get employment," he said. Without naming China, he said, the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Western Ladakh is disputed as it has not been demarkated yet. "We resolve the local issues, if any, at the local level," he added. Also present was GOC 14 Crops Lt. Gen. P J S Pannu.
Having planned the Kargil misadventure as early as when Pakistan's former army chief, self-styled CEO and later President, Parvez Musharraf was the Director General of Military Operations, twelve battalions of Northern Light Infantry (NLI) were raised for this purpose. Unlike the regular Pak army dominated by major ethnic groups like the Punjabis, Pashtuns etc, NLI comprised a mix of men from the small tribes of the Kashmir region, drawn from eight major ethnic groups-Baltis (from Baltistan), Shins, Yashkuns, Mughals, Kashmiris, Pathans, Ladakhis and Turks who speak the dialects of Balti, Shina, Brushaki, Khawer, Wakhi, Turki, Pushto, Urdu and Persian. The breakdown of NLI personnel was 49 % Shias, 23 % Ismailees, 10% Noor Bakhshis and the remainder 18 % were the only Sunnis. 55% hailed from Gilgit and 35 % from Baltistan. These twelve battalions of NLI were raised by Pak army as convenient and dispensable cannon-fodder and accordingly administered poorly, as came to be known after the fighting began almost six months after their deployment in the Kargil area.
Initially, following the fatal casualties of NLI personnel, Pak army disgracefully denied that they were Pakistani troops and even refused to accept their mortal remains. Later there were reports of NLI troops not receiving rations and the bodies of many of them killed being sent back to their homes only in hours of darkness as well as their next of kin lamenting that there were sugar grains stuck to their lips-an indication that they had been starving.
Operation Vijay launched by Indian Army in May 1999 was fraught with many disadvantages and difficulties. Owing to New Delhi initially not believing that Kargil heights had been intruded/occupied by Pak army, Indian troops had to negotiate the exacting terrain, including almost vertical climbs to approach the advantageously positioned and well defended Pakistani troops. It was with raw courage and outstanding junior leadership that Indian soldiers successfully gained back the high altitude outposts occupied by Pakistani intruders and at the great cost of over 500 Indian armed forces personnel killed during the 60-day long war.
However, refusing learn from its defeat at Kargil, Pak army and Inter Services Iintelligence have continued relentlessly to resort to various other means to keep Kashmir Valley on the boil by inciting youth through the separatists to pelt stones at and heckle Indian Army and security forces, while even helping terrorists in attacking and escaping. The zenith of eight years of anti-India operations was in 2016, when in addition to all mentioned activities, short of forty schools were destroyed by burning.
Meanwhile, the Indian Army and security forces (SFs), including J&K police, relentlessly continued- again disadvantageously- to combat the terrorists while dealing with radicalized Kashmiri youth with great restraint. Results began to show by mid 2017, but at the cost of many casualties sustained by both army and SFs, even as the Chinese troops have been maintaining pressure on the Line of Actual Control in Eastern Ladakh by frequent incursions/transgressions.
In 2017, till July itself, 121 Pakistani / Pak army supported Kashmiri terrorists have been killed by Army/SFs-51 on the Line Of Control (LoC) and 70 in the hinterland- a major achievement.
A comparison of ceasefire violations, infiltration bids and casualties in 2016 and 2017, all till end of July, is relevant. There were 248 violations in 2016 and 368 in 2017. In both years till July, 20 terrorists each were eliminated. 40 infiltration attempts were foiled by Army in 2016 and 19 in 2017. Terrorists killed during infiltration attempts were 55 in 2016 and 54 in 2017.
Personnel of Army and central armed police organization (CAPF) martyred in 2016 were 61 and 35 whereas in 2017, there have been 40 and 18 so far.
1,00,000 Army and CAPF personnel were deployed for vigil over the Amarnath yatra, which can be considered to have been successfully conducted for almost 3,00,000 pilgrims. The dastardly terrorist attack on a bus on 11 July 2017, killing seven Gujarati women and children and injuring nineteen others succeeded only because that bus did not join the protected convoy.
Despite the desperation of Pak army/ISI, one basic reason for the turning of the tide this year is the public in the Valley becoming sick of terrorism and violence. The successes of Army and other SFs have come about mainly through reliable and timely human intelligence. The same populace subjected to radicalization appear to be disgusted and have been readily sharing information of the whereabouts of terrorists.
The other front attacked at long last by New Delhi is that of the separatists. On 17 August 2017, National Investigation Agency (NIA) , arrested Zahoor Ahmad Shah Watali in connection with a case pertaining to funding of terrorist and separatist activities in Jammu & Kashmir. His arrest followed the searches conducted by the NIA on 16 August at multiple locations in Srinagar, Handwara, Kupwara and Baramulla, belonging to the relatives and employees of Zahoor Watali. The searches unearthed highly incriminating material pertaining to receipt of funds by Zahoor Watali from foreign sources and its further distribution to the terrorists and separatists in Kashmir valley for anti-India activities.
Earlier, on 3rd June, 2017, the NIA had searched Zahoor Watali's house in Srinagar and seized incriminating documents pertaining to several financial transactions and land deals. The property documents seized have shown huge amount of cash transactions in sale and purchase. Watali, who is suspected of acting as a conduit for illegally remitting funds to the secessionists, terrorists and stone-pelters, was earlier arrested in the year 1990 by the Jammu & Kashmir Police, when some anti-national activists were found present in his house at Bagat Barzulla, Srinagar. He was taken into custody along with Yaseen Malik, Sajjad Gani Lone, Bilal Lone and others and was jailed for eight months at Jammu.
Earlier,on 24 July 2017, Altaf Ahmed Shah, the son-in-law of hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, was arrested along with six more separatists by NIA in connection with its probe into the funding of terror and subversive activities in the Kashmir Valley. Altaf Ahmed Shah, popularly known as Altaf Fantoosh, was in the custody of the Jammu and Kashmir Police, who had put him in preventive detention immediately after Eid. Geelani's close aides Tehreek-e-Hurriyat spokesman Ayaz Akbar and Peer Saifullah and yet earlier, Shahid-ul-Islam, spokesman of the "moderate" Hurriyat Conference led by Mirwaiz Umer Farooq. The others arrested are Mehrajuddin Kalwal and Nayeem Khan (of the Hurriyat's Geelani faction) and Farooq Ahmed Dar alias 'Bitta Karate'. The houses of those arrested had been raided by NIA. Shah is perceived as an influential force in the Tehrek-e-Hurriyat. The NIA had recovered account books, Rs. 2 crore in cash and letterheads of banned terror groups, including the Lashkar eTaiyaba and Hizbul Mujahideen from the raids.
The NIA investigation also seeks to identify the network of those financing of terrorist activities, including those who masterminded stone-pelting at security forces, burnt down schools and damaged government establishments. For the first time since the rise of terrorism in Kashmir in the early 1990s, a central probe agency carried out raids to detect the funding of separatists. In 2002, the Income Tax department had raided the establishments of some separatist leaders, including Mr Geelani, and seized cash and documents, but that was of no avail, as they carried on with their anti-India activities.
It is reiterated that terrorism in Kashmir Valley can only be curbed completely by nabbing all the separatists and keeping them well away from that region.
The views expressed in the above article are that of Col. Anil Bhat.
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