Amid surge in encounters during Ramadan across south and north Kashmir with 12 militants having been killed since May 10, the security agencies on Saturday attributed the success of operations to “credible flow of information” about the presence of militants.
After the killing of a militant affiliated with the IslamicState of Jammu and Kashmir (ISJK) on May 10 at Shopian, the encounters betweenthe militants and the security forces have witnessed increase.
Official figures suggest that six major encounters tookplace between May 10 and May 18 resulting in the killing of 12 militants.”Among the slain militants was a top Jaish-e-Muhammad commander Khalid Bhai, aforeigner. He was involved in many attacks on security forces including the onein 2017 on CRPF at Lethpora, Pulwama resulting in the killing of five CRPFmen,” said a police official, wishing not to be named.
Of the six major gun-battles since May 10, five took placein the twin southern districts of Pulwama and Shopian, and one in Sopore areaof north Kashmir’s Baramulla district.
“On May 18, in Anantnag, another encounter was about tobegin but the militants managed to flee after initial exchange of fire,” said apolice officer.
A top police officer speaking to Greater Kashmir oncondition of anonymity admitted that there has been a “slight surge” in theencounters in the past over a week. “The reason is credible flow of informationabout the presence of militants,” the officer said.
He said the number of militants killed this year has touched84, highest ever since 2016.
“The important thing about the operations is that not asingle foreign militant has been killed on the LoC this year so far,” hesaid.
The officer said that security forces had established acontact few days back with a group “that seemed to be a part of a fresh andfirst infiltration bid this year” at Kandi belt of north Kashmir’s Kupwara, butthe militants seemed to have moved to upper reaches. “They will be tracedsoon,” he said.
“More people are coming forward with the credible leads now.Though human intelligence was already there, but it has of late increased as isevident from our apt operations,” the source revealed.
He said that besides the successful operations, many localboys who had picked up arms also decided to return and “in the past few months,many youth shunned militancy and returned to normal life.”