SRI NAGAR:The five months of violent unrest following the killing of Hizbul commander Burhan Wani in Jammu and Kashmir last year may not seem to be a distant memory if incidents of the last three days are anything to go by. For, there is an apparent increase in encounter incidents in the State in which at least eight militants, six soldiers, including a Major, and two civilians have been killed in the space of three days. About a dozen security personnel, including a CRPF commandant and a Major, have been injured.
DIG North Kashmir Nitish Kumar said the surge in encounters cannot be linked to rise in militancy.
“We are seeking contact with the militants. It is not that the militants are attacking the security personnel,” he said.
Another police officer said there has been a surge in encounters because security forces have gone on the offensive by launching counter militancy operations.
“During the more than five-month long agitation in the Valley last year, the focus of the security forces was to maintain law and order and not counter militancy operations. Now the focus has again shifted to counter militancy operations,” he said, adding that the security agencies have again made operational intelligence grid, which was rendered non-functional during the unrest.
“Now that counter militancy operations have resumed, the security forces are tracking militants and encounters are taking place,” he said.
The police officer termed the killing of Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) militant Abu Darda and his two associates as a major jolt to the terror outfit.
“The militants were involved in a number of incidents, including an attack on an Army convoy, patrol party and BSF convoy in North Kashmir,” he said.
All the attacks, the police said, were planned by Lashkar terrorist Abu Darda, who was killed in one of the encounters. He was active in the Kupwara belt from 2008–2010. “He had returned to Pakistan in 2010 and infiltrated back in 2015. After his second infiltration, he established a base in Handwara. He was the main coordinator of Lashkar and was responsible for the safe movement of newly arriving militants to other parts of the Valley, especially Central and South Kashmir,” said the police officer.
Meanwhile, the Army paid tributes to Major Satish Dahiya, rifleman Ravi Kumar, paratrooper Dharmender Kumar and gunner Ashutosh Kumar, who were killed in the twin encounters in North Kashmir.
Dahiya (31), from Mahendergarh, Haryana, lead the operation against the militants in Handwara, said defence spokesperson Colonel Rajesh Kalia. Dahiya, who was part of several counter militant operations, is survived by his wife and a two-year-old daughter.