SRINAGAR
: Security forces killed two terrorists Tuesday in a seek-and-kill operation in north Kashmir’s Bandipora district, part of an intensified sweep following a rise in attacks across the valley since an elected govt took office in J&K after six years in mid-Oct.
“The slain terrorists’ identities have not yet been confirmed and forces are conducting a mop-up operation in the area,” an official said.
Lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha vowed that those targeting civilians “won’t go unpunished” and warned that houses of people sheltering terrorists would be demolished.
“I have directed the forces not to harm any innocent, but the culprits will not be spared. If anyone provides shelter to terrorists, then his house will be razed to the ground,” he said at a function in Baramulla.
As security forces targeted terrorists and their support networks, a man from Sopore, identified as Ashiq Hussain Wani, was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of being a “hybrid terrorist” — a term used for radicalised people who conduct attacks and then blend back into everyday life. Police claimed to have seized a pistol and seven rounds of ammunition from him.
Recent terrorist attacks have led to multiple casualties. On Oct 14, an ambush near Gulmarg in Baramulla killed two soldiers and two civilian porters. In Shopian, a migrant worker from Bihar was fatally shot on Oct 18, followed by the murder of seven tunnel construction workers in Ganderbal on Oct 20.
The security push has led to multiple gunfights, including one on Nov 2 when Lashkar-e-Taiba commander Usman alias Chota Waleed from Pakistan was killed in Srinagar. On the same day, two unidentified terrorists were gunned down in Anantnag. However, terrorists retaliated with a grenade attack the next day, wounding 12 people in a busy Srinagar market.
Sources attributed the recent uptick in violence to two factors: the incoming winter, which will limit movement, and frustration among Pakistan-based “handlers” over the peaceful assembly elections in J&K, the first in a decade.
LG Sinha said Pakistan continues to push terrorists across the border and emphasised that ending violence requires local cooperation. “It is not just the job of the security forces and the administration but the people as well to identify such people (terrorists),” he said, adding that with civilian support, terrorism could be eradicated from J&K within a year.
Statehood ‘certain’
Restoration of statehood is “as certain as the sun rising from the east”, LG Sinha said Tuesday, echoing the focal point of his speech the day before at the inaugural assembly session of J&K as a Union territory.
He was quick to add that no political efforts or promises are required to fulfil this commitment, responding to NC-led governing coalition’s repeated pledges to restore J&K’s statehood.