2019: 148 ultras killed in J&K, 89 from south KMR
AVINAV VERMA. Updated: 9/19/2019 9:08:28 AM
Front Page
JAMMU: Adopting fresh strategies to eliminate militancy from the State, the Jammu and Kashmir Police along with other paramilitary forces have been neutralizing 16 ultras per month on an average since January 2019.
If numbers from 2018 are added, the average goes up to 19 a month.
“Jammu and Kashmir Police has neutralized 148 militants until September this year,” a top cop associated with counter insurgency operations told The News Now.
“Of these ultras killed in different parts of Kashmir region, 89 were gunned down in south Kashmir only, which is considered as hotbed for militancy,” he added.
“Majority of militants killed this year belonged to Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) militant outfit as security forces were focused on JeM militant outfit after February 14 Pulwama suicide attack by the outfit that killed 40 CRPF personnel,” he added.
“On the directions of Ministry of Home Affairs, we have improvised our strategies this year and working in coordination with the paramilitary forces,” he said.
Explaining fresh strategy of Jammu and Kashmir police, he said “We targeted the top commanders of militant outfits this year operating in Jammu and Kashmir. After eliminating key commanders of militant outfits like Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) and JeM. Then we targetted district-level commanders.”
“This strategy helped us to eliminate militants from grass root level as they become direction-less in absence of their commanders,” he added.
The top militant outfits commanders killed this year include Zakir Musa, the chief of so-called Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind, a group affiliated with Al-Qaeda, and LeT commander Naveed Jatt among others.
Another security official, requesting not to be named, said that the tough attitude adopted by security forces towards militancy is major contributor in prevailing peace especially after central government’s decision on August 5th to abrogate special status of the state and bifurcate it in two Union Territories (UTs).
“Only two anti-militancy operations were carried out by security forces since August 5 and three ultras were killed in those,” he added.