A day after killing 12 militants near the Line of Control (LOC) bordering Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK) in the north east frontier area of Gurez in Kashmir, the army on Sunday said a calibrated intelligence based action against the militant outfits Lashkar-e-Tayyeba (LeT) and Jash-e-Muhammad has weakened their capabilities and these groups are desperate to replenish the ranks in the valley. Peerzada Ashiq reports.
A day after killing 12 militants near the Line of Control (LOC) bordering Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK) in the north east frontier area of Gurez in Kashmir, the army on Sunday said a calibrated intelligence based action against the militant outfits Lashkar-e-Tayyeba (LeT) and Jash-e-Muhammad has weakened their capabilities and these groups are desperate to replenish the ranks in the valley.
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"Infiltration will continue and their (militants') mistakes will also continue and we will take benefit of their mistakes," General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the Army's Srinagar-based 15 Corps, Lt Gen Syed Atta Hasnain said to the media in Srinagar.
According to a recent police survey, the Hizbul Mujahideen figures stand at 143 while the LeT rank strength has shrunken to 92 only in the valley. The LeT remains No 2 in the militancy graph. Similarly, foreign militants’ presence has come down with only 134, while the local militants are 168 out of 325 militants active. The real security threat lies in 23 unidentified militants active in Kashmir.
"LeT and Jaish are traditionally the major terrorist groups -- Jaish from the year 2000 and Lashkar even before that... What is important is what are we doing to counter it. Jointly, security forces are targeting the leadership of Jaish and Lashkar, and our intelligence this year has been extremely good. It is because of this that the desperation has increased (among militants) and they are trying to infiltrate,” said GOC Hasnain.
The army, however, ruled out any possible attacks in near future. “The army has no special intelligence value that Lashkar or Jaish are planning to increase attacks or their activity,” said Hasnain adding “it had eliminated top commanders of the outfit which has increased desperation of militants to infiltrate into Kashmir ahead of winter.”
The army warned that infiltration attempts will continue over the next two months before winters will set in in Kashmir.
On Saturday, 12 militants were killed in Gurez when the army spotted movement of a group in a boat near Kishenganga river, which acts as defacto border. These militants, if sneaked into the valley, would have easily reached to Chief Minister Omar Abdullah’s constituency Ganderal and Bandipora districts, which has become a springboard of militancy in the state, housing all top LeT commanders in its rough mountainous terrain and dense forests.