6 top commanders among 22 militants killed in 2 weeks: DGP

Terming the killing of twenty-two militants in nine separate operations in the last two weeks a major success for security forces, Director General of Police (DGP) Jammu and Kashmir, Dilbagh Singh Monday said that six top commanders have been eliminated who were involved in various terror-related crimes.

Ground Report | Srinagar

Addressing a press conference at Police headquarters Jammu, Dilbagh Singh said that in nine separate operations in the last two weeks, twenty-two militants have been eliminated which is a major success for forces and depicts close synergy with which police, army, CRPF, other forces, and intelligence agencies are working.

He said that besides the elimination of militants, police in Awantipora also foiled a bid of some anti-social elements to push some innocent youth in militancy.

“We have arrested such anti-social elements while innocent youth have been saved from getting involved in militancy,” DGP said.

DGP also mentioned about success of forces in which a big IED was “timely detected and destroyed” by forces.

“Militants made two attempts to trigger the explosion with this IED but failed due to alertness of forces and later IED was detected and destroyed successfully,” he said.

Further mentioning Pakistan's involvement in militancy across Jammu and Kashmir, DGP said that Pakistani from across and their handlers on this side always make attempts to spread militancy and the Pakistan army is pushing infiltrators on this side.

“Militancy is Pak sponsored and not indigenous as projected,” Singh said while terming TRF as an attempt of militant organizations to give a local face to militancy which is not true.

"Militants belonging to TRF outfit who were killed in some operations and militants from other organizations have been identified, which shows that TRF is just an attempt to give militancy a local face.”

He also said that forces are handling law and order scenario in a proper manner with no major law and order incident has been reported in recent past.

While replying to another question regarding the number of active militants in Jammu and Kashmir, DGP said that this number is not static but dynamic which keeps on changing.

“The only thing I can say about numbers is that it is lesser as compared to the number in the last few years.”

While replying to some questions, he said that there are reports of that militants have infiltrated from the Line of Contol. "A couple of months ago, an encounter took place at Nagrota toll plaza, and later it came to fore that a group of militants had earlier infiltrated from IB," Singh said.

He further added that on May 28, a group of three militants was neutralized on LoC in Rajouri's Nowshera and it has been learned that a group had infiltrated earlier also from the same area.

"We are investigating the reports of infiltration and are also following some infiltrators who managed to sneak in."

The DGP further said that militancy launch pads were kept active across LoC even in winters this year and the first infiltration was reported in Keran and five infiltrators were eliminated.

However Army said that over the past few months it has been working “extremely hard” with the Jammu and Kashmir police to develop leads to trace and kill militants in various parts of Kashmir, especially South Kashmir.

Top army officer congratulated the security agencies including teams of army, police and the CRPF that took part in “successful anti-militancy operations” in Kashmir. Addressing a press conference at army’s Awantipore headquarters, General officer Commanding (GoC) victor force, Major General A Sengupta said that over the last few months, the army has been working extremely hard with the J&K Police to develop various information leads to “neutralize militants who have been disrupting the normal life of population here.”

“These militants were coercing the population to give them shelter,” the (GoC) Victor Force said. He said that yesterday morning, an input was received about the presence of five militants in Reban village of Shopian, troops of 1 RR of army swung into action.

“It was a congested built area and the challenge of ensuring no collateral damage remained there. Some 14 houses were evacuated. At 7 am, contact was established with the militants and after night hours of fierce battle, they were killed successfully,” the GoC Victor Force said. “There was no damage to civilian property.”

He said that last night again, a specific input was received from the police about presence of militants in Pinjoora area of Shopian. “These militants were involved in harassing the civil population, disrupt normal life and killing of non-local people, injuring truck drivers last year and also abducting the cops,” the GoC Victor Force.

He said in the four hour long operation at Pinjoora, four local militants were killed without any collateral damage in a four-hour long operation.

Speaking on the occasion, General officer Commanding (GoC) of Srinagar-based army’s 15 Corps, Lieutenant General B S Raju said that he congratulates the teams of army and the police besides CRPF for doing the excelling job by killing nine militants in the past 24 hours.

“This we have been able to do because of the professionalism of all agencies involved. The tactics used by the forces on ground are to ensure operations are conducted in a very professional manner,” he said.

He said that both the operations were conducted in an areas where there was a fair amount of civilian population and where civilians were evacuated. “I would like to give the credit to local population for facilitating smooth anti-militancy operations,” the GoC 15 Corps said, as per news agency KNO.

Replying to a query, GoC 15 Corps said that if there is one person, who is not happy with the peace returning to Kashmir that is “Pakistan.” “It is Pakistan’s larger game plan to keep the pot boiling in Kashmir. That is how the relevance of Pakistan army remains within Pakistan.

As far Pakistan’s contribution is concerned in Kashmir, it’s a combination of two things—on physical front inducting weapons along the LoC and second is information warfare Pakistan intends to fight,” the GoC said, as per KNO, and appealed people not to pay heed towards propaganda from across LoC.

He said post abrogation of Article 370, people of Kashmir behaved in a positive manner as there was a peace for a long period. “People together can defeat the malicious propaganda from across,”

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