Fayaz Bukhari
SRINAGAR, Aug 10: As the security forces have intensified the counter infiltration grid along the Line of Control (LoC) to stop militants from infiltrating, the local youth who are joining the militant ranks are being trained in Kashmir only, a top police official said here.
The official said that now the local militants get trainings here only and they don’t cross the LoC for arms training as ex-filtration and infiltration has become almost impossible due to tough counter-infiltration measures.
“Basically it is familiarization with the weapons and for that one can get a basic training in just in couple of hours. Operating an AK-47 rifle and throwing a grenade is what they need training for”, the official said.
The militants don’t need to do the rigorous training and they are being imparted just weapon handling training. “As militants cash on surprise element they don’t need much training. Weapon familiarization is enough for them. However, with this basic training they can’t stand against the security forces for long time. For that one needs rigorous training just like we give it to our jawans”, the official said.
However, sources said that the militants are now conducting almost week long training course for the new recruits locally in the forests mostly in South Kashmir before taking them on board. They said that the militants are resorting to cop killings to snatch the rifles as they are short of weapons.
The official denied large scale recruitment of youth local youth in militant ranks. “Every year 10-15 odd youth join the militancy and same number must have joined this year now. We get regular updates from the ground and number of new entrants this year can’t be more than 10-15”, the official said.
On the recycling of the released and surrendered militants, the police official said that around 15 out of 30, 000 of them have so far recycled and joined the militant ranks. “It is a small number that has recycled and we can’t crackdown on all 30, 000 former militants”, he added.
On the infiltration of militants this year into Kashmir valley, the police official said that around 35-40 militants managed to infiltrate this year utpo June. “Some of them have been killed in various operations this year”, he added.
“We are receiving reports of militant presence but it is not being corroborated on the ground”, the official said.
The official said that as the militancy incidents are down, the department wants the police to do normal policing in the changing scenario. “The crime rate in the State is 26000 per year which is less than that of a district in the State’s like UP, Punjab and Bihar”, he added.
“We want the police to focus on conducting investigations into the crimes, book the guilty and get the punished”, the official said.
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