At least 220 militants, including 50 to 60 foreigners, are active in Kashmir at present, the police said on Wednesday, but asserted that the “situation on the ground is under control.”
“There has been negligible recruitment (into militancy) after September last year. (Some) boys have been brought back from the borderline of joining militancy. The scenario which emerged post-Burhan Wani’s killing in 2016 saw an upsurge in militancy. Some militant groups like Jaish-e-Muhammad also capitalised on it. They started recruiting locals into their ranks, which they earlier hardly used to do easily,” said a senior police officer, insisting not to be named as he wasn’t authorised to speak to media.
He added: “Some operations went well for us (the police). Some encounters happened at places where these were not earlier possible. In 97 operations conducted last year, we avoided collateral damage in more than 80. Now there is a situation in which we are certainly under control.”
After the launch of “operation all out” against militants, forces killed many top militant commanders in 2018 including Saddam Padder, Altaf Kacchru, Naveed Jhatt, Mehraj-u-din Bangroo, Sameer Tiger, Abu Maaz and others.
According to official figures, 257 militants, 91 forces personnel including 45 J&K policemen and 38 civilians were killed during anti-militancy operations last year. In 2018, out of 97 operations, no collateral damage was seen in 83, according to the director general of police Dilbag Singh.