Abid Bashir
Srinagar (NVI): In south Kashmir districts, 29 foreign terrorists are active who are hiding in upper reaches while Hizbul Mujahideen has been weakened in southern districts of the Valley but wiped off completely from Pulwama’s Tral area, Inspector General of Police (IGP), Kashmir Vijay Kumar today said.
Talking to reporters on the sidelines of a wreath laying ceremony of a CRPF man who was killed in yesterday’s terrorist attack at Bijbehara, IGP said that militancy has not been wiped from South Kashmir yet but has been largely weakened.
“There are 29 foreign militants active in South Kashmir, who are hiding in upper reaches of southern districts and are not coming down. When our sources would give accurate information about them, we will go after them,” Kumar said.
“Militancy has not been wiped out from South Kashmir yet but we are in a process of doing that,” he said. “There have been massive jolts to the various terrorist outfits in South Kashmir this year. The remaining terrorists are being cleaned gradually. However, the Tral area, that has been the hot bed of militancy, has for the first time since 1989, no active Hizb terrorist. ”
Interestingly, Director General of Police (J&K) Dilbagh Singh recently said that Hizb has lost over 50 terrorists this year while Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed have lost 20 each including top commanders.
Responding to a query whether security forces have shifted their focus to north Kashmir, the IGP said that the number of terrorists in north Kashmir is less as compared to south. “We have already started anti-militancy operations in north Kashmir also. Recently, we killed two local terrorists in Sopore area of Baramulla,” he said.
The IGP further stated that, “Both, human as well as technical intelligence is helping us to develop credible leads about the presence of terrorists. We develop leads and act against terrorists and later on identify the militant outfits they belong to.”
Talking about the attack at Bijbheara in which a CRPF man and a five-year-old boy were killed, he said eye-witnesses and police sources have identified the terrorist involved in the firing. “His name is Zahid Das and he is affiliated with the J&K Islamic State outfit. He came on a bike and fired indiscriminately in which a CRPF man and minor boy got killed,” he said, adding that “a massive manhunt has been launched to nab Zahid.”
-CHK
