Fayaz Bukhari
SRINAGAR, Feb 22: Army today said that with the elimination of top militant leadership in Kashmir this year, there may be fresh infiltration attempts by militants from Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) and they are ready for any challenge.
General Officer Commanding (GOC) 15 Corps Lt General Gurmit Singh told reporters here: “We eliminated top leadership of the militants this year and there will be attempt for infiltration by militants from across the Line of Control (LoC) and we are ready for the challenge.”
The GOC said that militant infrastructure across the LoC is intact and the LoC is still snow bound but there will be infiltration attempts. “We are ready for any challenge as counter-insurgency grid is in place”, he added.
Singh said that there have been increased militant actives for some time so the number of operations and area domination has also been increased.
The GOC said that during the first two months of this year security forces achieved major success by eliminating 11 militants and arrested 13 others, including some top commanders.
Singh said that Hizbul Mujahideen commander of North Kashmir was killed and that of South Kashmir was apprehended by troops. He said that three Jaish-e-Mohammad militants including their Divisional Commander were killed in Sopore and one in Tral while a Lashkar-e-Toiba militant was killed and six others were apprehended by troops.
The GOC said that all the 13 militants apprehended by security forces are locals. He said that whenever they confront any local militant he is being given total chance to surrender. “We will never fire at them unless we are fired at. The locals are misguided youth and therefore Army is adopting the tactics”, he added.
Singh said that the operations conducted this year have been surgical and there has been no causality other than militants. “All these operations were based on intelligence inputs and there was no collateral damage”, he added.
The GOC said there are strict instructions to all field commanders to respect the Human Rights. “There would be zero tolerance on Human Rights violations. There will be total respect to women and elderly”, he said adding anybody found exceeding his limit would have to face strict action.
When asked if the situation will change in the region once the foreign security forces withdraw from Afghanistan, Singh said there is always threat of infiltration from across the LoC. “The infiltration routes are under snow but there was no question of lowering the guards despite harsh weather conditions”, he added.
Singh said, troops remained on high alert even during this harsh winter to foil any infiltration attempt. “We have anti-infiltration grid in place to meet any challenge from across the LoC, where a large number of militants are waiting to sneak into this side, he added.
The GOC said last year troops were able to eliminate a large number of militants after their infiltration into this side.
Singh said Parliament and Assembly elections are also due this year and Army will provide safe environment for peaceful polls.
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