Tribune News Service

Jammu, November 13

Even the cold statistics speak a lot. Today, when the number of terrorists killed this year so far crossed 200 in Kashmir, it became clear that the unorthodox counter-terrorism strategy of coordination and compassion was working.

On Tuesday, the Army’s Srinagar-based 15 Corps that has been fighting Pakistan-sponsored terrorism almost for 30 years in the Valley found that with the killing of two terrorists along the Line of Control in the Keran sector in north-west Kashmir this morning, the number of terrorists killed reached 201.

This number inspired mixed feelings – one, that those who picked up the gun against the state at the behest of Pakistan and the Islamic extremist forces had been neutralised for the good of the people and the state at large. The poignant point, however, was that 102 of them were local militants who could have survived and gone back to their families had they heeded the repeated calls to realise the

futility of violence.

This year offered unique challenges to the Army as anti-militancy operations had to be put on hold during the unilateral ceasefire period of Ramzan and there was restrained action during the two-month-long Amarnath yatra.

This means that 200-plus militants were killed in less than eight months. Some of the top militants who fell this year were Abu Mateen, Abu Hamaas, Samir “Tiger”, Saddam Paddar, Abu Qasim and Abu Maviya. As many as 27 militants were neutralised in the month of October alone – the prominent among them were Manan Wani, Sabzar Sofi and Meraj-ud-Din Bangroo. South Kashmir witnessed 109 deaths of militants while north recorded 45 and 47 others were neutralised at the LoC.

Lt Gen A K Bhatt, Commander of 15 Corps and the author of this strategy, wanted that the local militants be given all options before they were taken on, sources told The Tribune.

This led to a drastic reduction in local recruitment, as confirmed by Governor Satya Pal Malik, who recently observed that “the recruitment level has come down to zero.”

The Army has had bigger challenges to confront —— machinations of the deep state of Pakistan that wanted to bleed Kashmir to force India to talk. The designs are being defeated as evident by the killing of 47 terrorists along the LoC.

Now the next challenge is how to deal with the militants sitting across the LoC during winter. And, the Army hopes that the strategy would yield further dividend during the period of snow.