MILITANCY
AP
MAKING APPLES FALL
The biggest anti-terror operation in recent times leaves south Kashmir seething
by Naseer Ganai in Srinagar
THE Sunday ( April 1 ) operations in J & K ’ s Shopian district , in which 13 local Hizbul Mujahideen militants were killed , inc luding top guns Zubair Ahmad Turay at Dragad hamlet and Ishfaq Thokar at Kachdoora village , were the outcome of sustained eff orts by the police to trace them . This was the highest number of militants to have been killed within 12 hours in the past two decades . According to police sources , the success , which triggered a mass outpouring of grief over the killings of local youth , including four civilians , has also brought a fair bit of anxiety in its wake . Security agencies fear a revival of the massive protests that had raged for months across the Valley , following the killing of Hizbul commander Burhan Wani in south Kashmir ’ s Kokernag on July 8 , 2016 . Yet the agencies are hopeful that the Sunday operation will bring down militant recruitment in south Kashmir in the long run , and ser iously affect Hizbul Mujahideen ’ s activities in particular in the short term .
Intelligence gathering over the months preceding the operation had revealed that locally recruited militants had been turning increasingly belligerent and become audacious enough to move around in groups , confident of their ability to break out of any cordon . They also preferred to stay close to their native villages . Most of the militants killed in the past one year in Shopian had been found in or around their native places , or in the villages of their relatives .
On March 17 , local militants mounted an ambush on the convoy of the district superintendent of police ( SP ) at Hajipora in Shopian . The SP , A . S . Dinkar , managed to escape unhurt as he was travelling in a bulletproof vehicle . Nine days later , near Kachdoora , militants attacked the cavalcade of the 34 Rashtriya Rifles ’ commanding officer . Again , there was no loss of life . Last August , militants had killed two army personnel , including a major , in Zainpora area of the same district .
After Burhan ’ s killing , Shopian and neighbouring districts had seen a spurt in militant recruitment . Burhan had given unprecedented importance to increasing militancy ’ s visibility , posting pictures of himself and other militants holding weapons . This is where they differed significantly from the earlier generation of militants , who preferred to be faceless . The new generation accepted the higher risk of being traced and killed in their effort to become popular among civilians , with faces that the local population could relate to and identify with .
A trickle of local youth had started joining armed militancy while Burhan was alive . After his killing , recruitment peaked until November 2017 . Through most of last year , militants had a nearly free run in the relatively prosperous Shopian district , known for its apple orchards , forcing security agencies to start studying the terrain more systematically , dividing it into five zones : Kreeri , main Shopian , Wachi , Kapran and Hirpora . Sources say they started deploying the security forces and the Army in strength and increased both human and technical intelligence . As the militant domination was high in Shopian and their writ would run large in the area , the police say the force augmentation helped them in understanding militant movement in the militant landscape of Shopian .
38 OUTLOOK 16 April 2018