Nearly 300 militants have been killed in encounters with the Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) Police and security forces in the last 20 months in Kashmir. Fifty of them have been established as foreigners—all from Pakistan.
“In 2019, the J&K Police and security forces have eliminated 152 terrorists in different operations in the Valley. Thirty of them were Pakistani cadres of Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammad. Since 1st of January this year (2020), we have killed 146 terrorists. Twenty of them were Pakistani nationals. So out of the 298 terrorists killed in the last 20 months, as many as 50 were from Pakistan”, Vijay Kumar, Inspector General of Police, Kashmir, said.
According to IGP Kashmir, police and security forces had carried out most of the successful operations and encounters in the southern Kashmir districts of Pulwama, Shopian, Kulgam and Anantnag. There has been less collateral damage as in most of these operations all the holed up militants were killed without much resistance. Most were young and fresh recruits, well-indoctrinated but with little guerrilla training.
Contrarily, there has been considerable damage in northern Kashmir which, to a large extent, remained peaceful with marginal militant presence until April this year. Since April, 25 police, army and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel were killed in four major attacks and three encounters.
The first gunfight of the year between the militants and security forces occurred on the Line of Control (LoC) in Keran sector of Kupwara district on 3rd and 4th April. Five Special Forces personnel were killed in this operation even as they killed at least five heavily armed intruders. All five were believed to be well-trained Pakistani militants. On 2 May 2020, four Army personnel—including Col Ashutosh Sharma, Commanding Officer of Rashtriya Rifles 21 Bn and Maj Anuj—as also one from the J&K Police, died in a fierce encounter at Chanjmulla in Kupwara. Two militants—both established as foreigners—were also killed in the same encounter.
Subsequently, nine CRPF personnel were killed in three major attacks on the paramilitary forces—two in Sopore and one in Handwara. Last week, five more personnel—2 from Army, 2 from CRPF and 1 from J&K Police—were killed in an ambush, followed by a combing operation, in Kreeri area of Baramulla district, in northern Kashmir. The two militants killed in this encounter were identified as Sajad Ahmad Mir alias Haider alias Jaja of Brath Kalan Sopore (LeT Chief of North Kashmir) and Anayatullah Mir of Andergam Pattan, affiliated with proscribed terror outfit LeT.
At least four well-trained Pakistani militants, including the two who attacked the police and CRPF party from the front with body cameras fitted to their battle gear, are believed to have escaped.
As per police records, Sajad alias Haider, killed in the Kreeri gunfight, had a history of terror crime records since 2016. He was involved in planning and executing several terror attacks including civilian atrocities and attacks on security establishments. Moreover, he was involved in the recruitment of youth in terror ranks. Several terror crime cases were registered against him which included the killing of the senior BJP leader Waseem Bari along with his father and brother.
Sajad had also attacked a CRPF party at Sopore, killing one paramilitary personnel and leaving four wounded. According to police records, he was also involved in the killing of civilians namely Eid-ul-Amin Mir alias Nazir Budoo of Bomai and Mushtaq Ahmad Mir of Harwan Sopore besides firing on the family of a fruit merchant, Haidullah Rather, at Dangerpora Sopore in which four of his family members including a three-year-baby had got injured.
Sajjad, according to Police, was also involved in firing on a Bihari labourer, Mohammad Shafi Alam, near Noorbagh Bypass. DGP Dilbagh Sing told journalists that Sajad was emerging in influence like Burhan Wani who was killed in an encounter at Bamdora, Kokernag in July 2016.
On 20 August, another group of militants attacked a Police party at Ganapora, Kralgund, in Kupwara district. Two militants, identified as Ali Bhai alias Danish from Pakistan and Naseer-ud-din Lone alias Saad Bhai of Braath, Sopore, were killed
On 22 August, yet another encounter took place between militants and the security forces at Chak-e-Saloosa in the Kreeri area of Baramulla district. One Pakistani militant, identified as Anees alias Chhotu Sultan, was killed in the encounter.
A group of 3 militants, including one Pakistani spotted in the CCTV footage, attacked a road observation party of the police and security forces at Gulshan Nagar, near Nowgam, in Srinagar on 14 August. Two constables of Indian Reserve Police, namely Fayaz Ahmad and Ashfaq Ayoub, were fatally targeted. Officials insist that a terror module of LeT, operating in Newa-Pulwama belt, carried out the attack.
Senior Police and security forces officers believe, on the basis of shared and coordinated inputs, that around 90-100 Pakistani militants of LeT and JeM were still present and active in Kashmir. Of them, 50 were believed to be in the northern Kashmir districts of Baramulla, Kupwara and Bandipora, 10-20 in the central Kashmir districts of Srinagar, Budgam and Ganderbal and 30 in the southern Kashmir districts of Pulwama, Shopian, Kulgam and Anantnag..
