Abid Bashir
Srinagar, June 8: The Army on Monday said that over the past few months it has been working “extremely hard” with the Jammu and Kashmir Police to develop leads to trace and kill militants in various parts of Kashmir, especially South Kashmir.
Addressing a press conference at army’s Awantipore headquarters, General officer Commanding (GoC) victor force, Major General A Sengupta said that over the last few months, the army has been working extremely hard with the J&K Police to develop various information leads to “kill militants who have been disrupting the normal life of population here.”
“These militants were coercing the population to give them shelter,” the (GoC) Victor Force said. He said that yesterday morning, an input was received about the presence of five militants in Reban village of Shopian, troops of 1 RR of army swung into action. “It was a congested built area and the challenge of ensuring no collateral damage remained there. Some 14 houses were evacuated. At 7 am, contact was established with the militants and after night hours of fierce battle, they were killed,” the GoC Victor Force said. “There was no damage to civilian property.”
He said that last night again, a specific input was received from the police about presence of militants in Pinjoora area of Shopian. “These militants were involved in harassing the civil population, disrupt normal life and killing of non-local people, injuring truck drivers last year and also abducting the cops,” the GoC Victor Force.
He said in the four hour long operation at Pinjoora, four local militants were killed without any collateral damage in a four-hour long operation.
Speaking on the occasion, General officer Commanding (GoC) of Srinagar-based Army’s 15 Corps, Lieutenant General B S Raju said that he congratulates the teams of army and the police besides CRPF for doing the excelling job by killing nine militants in the past 24 hours.
“This we have been able to do because of the professionalism of all agencies involved. The tactics used by the forces on ground are to ensure operations are conducted in a very professional manner,” he said.
He said that both the operations were conducted in an areas where there was a fair amount of civilian population and where civilians were evacuated. “I would like to give the credit to local population for facilitating smooth anti-militancy operations,” the GoC 15 Corps said.
Replying to a query, the GoC 15 Corps said that if there is one person, who is not happy with the peace returning to Kashmir that is “Pakistan.” “It is Pakistan’s larger game plan to keep the pot boiling in Kashmir. That is how the relevance of Pakistan army remains within Pakistan.
He said post abrogation of Article 370, people of Kashmir behaved in a positive manner as there was a peace for a long period. “People together can defeat the malicious propaganda from across.”—(KNO)
