Azhar Qadri

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, October 31

Three district-level commanders and a well-trained sniper, who picked targets in the darkness of night, have been killed as October marked an increase in the offensive and pinpoint operations against militants across the Kashmir valley.

It also marks a change in counter-insurgency strategy which was affected by the Ramazan ceasefire as security forces were tasked to go slow and respond only in a tit-for-tat manner.

A key distinction during this month has been that fewer civilian casualties – barring the six civilians who died in an accidental explosion at the site of the gunfight —- took place during the handling of the law and order situation around such operations.

The fresh offensive against militants has coincided with the conclusion of municipal elections in the region and a senior police officer attributed the successful counter-insurgency operations to the “very good” quality of information. “The quality of information from various channels has been very good, that is why there have been result-oriented operations,” ADGP Munir Khan said, adding that anyone linked to any banned militant organisation and carrying illegal arms would be a target.

He said over 190 militants had been killed this year while the number of active militants is in the range of 280 to 300. As October marked a sharp spike in the counter-insurgency operations, for the first time since Ramazan ceasefire earlier this year, the security forces traced militants to their hideouts and intercepted them at checkpoints almost on a daily basis and sometimes even in multiple gunfights in a day.

Four militants, two of them district-level commanders, were killed in counter-insurgency operations in Srinagar, the state’s summer capital which is registering a return of militant activities after a hiatus. Another district-level commander Manan Wani, who was a PhD scholar at Aligarh Muslim University, was killed along with his associate in north Kashmir’s Handwara sub-district.

The counter-insurgency operations which resulted in the killing of militants in October took place in south Kashmir’s Anantnag, Kulgam and Pulwama, in central Kashmir’s Srinagar, and in north Kashmir’s Baramulla and Kupwara – accounting for six of the 10 districts of the Valley.

Nearly 30 militants killed during the month were associated with the Hizbul Mujahideen, Lashkar-e-Toiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad and at least one, a former pharmacy student, with the Tehreek-ul-Mujahideen.

In one of the last counter-insurgency operations, the security forces zeroed in on a hideout in south Kashmir’s Tral sub-district where it killed a well-trained militant sniper, Usman Haider, who had carried out rare sniping attacks in recent days.

Four political workers — one of them linked to a separatist group and rest affiliated with mainstream NC and PDP — were killed by suspected militants during the month.

Major encounters

October 30: Two Jaish militants, including a sniper, killed in Tral.

October 26: Two Lashkar militants and a soldier killed in Sopore.

October 25: Six militants killed in Anantnag and Baramulla. Soldier killed in sniper attack in Tral.

October 24: Hizb district commander Sabzar Bashir Sofi and his aide killed in Srinagar.

October 21: Three Jaish militants killed in Kulgam. Six civilians killed in accidental blast at gunfight site.

October 19: Two Jaish militants killed at a checkpoint in Baramulla.

October 18: Four militants killed in Baramulla.

October 17: Lashkar district commander Mehraj Bangroo along with another militant killed in Srinagar.

October 11: Two militants, including Hizb district commander and PhD scholar Manan Wani killed in Handwara.