Srinagar, May 2: General officer Commanding (GoC) of Srinagar-based army’s 15 Corps Lieutenant General D P Pandey Monday said that the number of local militants has started coming down significantly due to which foreign militants are “feeling compelled to come out of their hideouts”.
“The foreign terrorists, majority of them, were on the quiet. They were putting local youth on the forefront in carrying out operations against security forces. As the number of local militants has gone down significantly down, the foreigners are now feeling compelled to come out of their hideouts and that’s why they are getting exposed and we are able to establish contacts with them of late,” GoC Pandey told reporters on the side-lines of a function at 15 Corps headquarters in Srinagar, as per news agency KNO.
Pandey said that the recovery of valid Aadhaar cards from two slain foreigner militants in Srinagar recently was indeed was a challenge. “If a person (foreign militant) comes out during a live encounter having a valid Aadhaar card, it is difficult to challenge him. Gradually, we will overcome this challenge,” Pandey said.
About infiltration, the GoC Pandey said that this year so far, only one infiltration attempt was made which was foiled by the troops. “Though some mild attempts were made but no major infiltration was reported from across along the LoC this year,” he said while crediting the “robust counter-infiltration grid put in place by the army on the LoC”.
To a query that there are reports that militants are again using satellite phones and nigh vision devices being used by US forces and other forces across the globe, the GoC said that it was true that some devices that are being used in other parts of the world were used by militants and recovered here too. “It is not a big challenge and we have been able to overcome it effectively,” he said.