Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 1

Security forces in Jammu and Kashmir have planned a major operation to bring down the remaining top leadership of terrorists operating in the state.

As per the latest estimates of the Army, a hunt is on for three terrorists who formed the core 12-member leadership.

The three are locals from Kashmir and have been categorised by the forces as ‘A++’ terrorists, the most notorious level. In the past couple of months, security forces have killed nine terrorists of the same category, the last one being Naved Jatt, who had killed journalist Shujaat Bukhari.

The forces are searching for Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist Zeenat-ul-Islam, the group’s chief operational commander in Kashmir; Riyaz Ahmad Naikoo; and Zakir Musa of the group called the Ansar Ghazwat ul-Hind. Authorities in Delhi are upbeat that the number of terrorists killed so far during 2018 is 233 and of these, 39 have been killed in November alone, indicating that local sources have been helping the forces. October, September and August had seen 28, 29 and 28 terrorist getting killed, respectively.

Army Chief General Bipin Rawat had said recently “terrorists have to be brought to a level where they are not able to revamp and come together”. Sources said clear instructions have been issued to prevent any regrouping.

There are inputs on terrorists being concentrated in certain areas of south and central Kashmir — in five locations Shopian, Anantnag, Budgam, Kulgam and Srinagar.

The Army says hard intelligence about the whereabouts of terrorists is coming from the local population which has led to successful operations.

This development coincides with the reality that ceasefire violations by Pakistan (firing from across the Line of Control in J&K) have been going up. On May 29, India and Pakistan had agreed to maintain ceasefire along the borders. They had promised to end continuous firing across the acrimonious divide.

The Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) of India and Pakistan had then spoken to each other through the existing telephonic hotline mechanism.

Resultantly, June and July saw only 18 and 13 ceasefire violations. In contrast, the violations in October and November were 178 in each month. The ceasefire is an understanding of 2003. Ceasefire violations go up when Pakistan Army fires at Indian posts in the attempt to remove the focus on terrorists attempting to sneak in.

Search on for dreaded trio

• A hunt is on for three terrorists who form the core 12-member leadership. The three are locals from Kashmir and have been categorised by the forces as ‘A++’ terrorists, the most notorious level
• The forces are searching for Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist Zeenat-ul-Islam, the group’s chief operational commander in Kashmir; Riyaz Ahmad Naikoo; and Zakir Musa of the group called the Ansar Ghazwat ul-Hind
• In the past couple of months, forces have killed nine terrorists of the same category, the last one being Naved Jatt, who had killed scribe Shujaat Bukhari