45 ultras killed by Army in Valley this year

Ravi Krishnan Khajuria

Tribune News Service

Jammu, May 24

The Army has gone full throttle this year so far and eliminated 45 militants in Kashmir. It has also reviewed its summer strategy along the 744-km-long Line of Control (LoC). 

“A total of 45 militants have been eliminated by security forces in Kashmir from January 1 this year,” said  Col SD Goswami, Northern Command’s Udhampur-based defence spokesperson.

On May 16, a militant, Bilal Bhat, had jumped off a cliff to escape soldiers and died, taking the total number of slain militants to 46. Bhat along with his two associates was trying to exfiltrate to PoK via the LoC in the Poonch sector.

Army sources, however, said that despite gunning down 45 militants in Kashmir this year, militants were waiting in launching pads on the Pakistani side of the LoC.

“The terrain is such that possibilities of successful infiltration cannot be ruled out. At the same time, there is immense pressure on ultras in launching pads because of continual success achieved by security forces in Kashmir this year,” they added.

Sources said the rapidly depleting cadre of militant outfits in Kashmir had become a cause for concern for the Pakistani army and the ISI.

“While the Army will be consolidating the gains made in the hinterland (within the state), we have a robust counter-infiltration strategy on the LoC, which has an appropriate mix of technology and human resource,” said the sources.

“Innovative troop deployment, including ambushes, efficient use of surveillance and monitoring devices, besides fencing along the LoC have enhanced our ability to detect and intercept infiltration,” the sources added.

The Army anticipates that militants in launching pads may try some non-traditional routes to sneak into J&K this summer.

“Our endeavour has always been to intercept and neutralise them (militants) before they reach the barbed fence,” they added.

As per an official report, 18 “highly trained” militants crossed the LoC and sneaked into Kashmir via frontier Kupwara district in April this year. Out of them, five were shot dead in recent encounters with security forces.

Last year, over 100 militants were killed by the Army in the state.