Win the confidence of locals to contain militancy in J&K
The December 21 terrorist attack on an Army convoy in Jammu & Kashmir’s Poonch, in which five soldiers lost their lives, bares the chinks in the intelligence apparatus. Following the deadly ambush, the security forces picked up eight locals for questioning but three of them were later found dead, triggering a massive outrage in their villages. That the killed civilians were tribal Gujjar men further complicated matters. Meanwhile, the hunt for the militants involved in the attack is on and mobile Internet services continue to be suspended in Poonch and Rajouri districts.
The rising number of military casualties is a big worry for the forces. Since 2021, the Army has lost 33 personnel in Rajouri and Poonch districts. There have been 251 terrorist-initiated incidents in J&K between 2021 and May this year. In November 2023, four Army personnel including two Captains were martyred in Rajouri district. In September, two Army officers of the rank of Major and Captain, and a police officer of DySP rank were killed in action in the forests of Kokernag near Anantnag. In April, five soldiers lost their lives in a militant attack in Pir Panjal Valley in Pooch district.
While militancy has been on a downward trend in J&K post the abrogation of Article 370 in August, 2019, security forces have suffered casualties, particularly in Poonch and Rajouri districts, which fall in the Pir Panjal region and are close to the Line of Control. A heavily forested area, marked with difficult terrain, militants find it easy to hide, target convoys and security personnel before escaping to the other side, of Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir.
Most of these militants have not fallen under the radar of security personnel. While local militant recruitment has witnessed a decline, the number of foreign and hybrid (those not identified) recruits has gone up. The main reason why these terrorists remain undetected is due to the ‘drying of Intelligence’ at the village level. Fencing of forests for conservation purposes has reportedly restricted the movement of tribals who have families in the PoK. Earlier, they would keep a watch and report suspicious movements to the security forces. But with restrictions and a feeling of disenchantment with the administration, local intelligence is drying up.
To address this, the administration and security forces need to involve confidence-building measures, especially with the tribals in the Pir Panjal area, to counter the scourge of cross-border militancy supported by Pakistan’s deep state. Nothing works better than human intelligence.