‘More ultras killed this year than added’

NEW DELHI: More terrorists have been killed in Jammu & Kashmir than added on account of fresh infiltration or local recruitment so far this year, according to J&K DGP Dilbag Singh, which he said is a marked improvement over the situation last year when the forces seemed to be playing catch up in neutralising terror operatives.
“For an average 100 new terrorists produced in J&K on account of infiltration from Pakistan or local recruitment this year, 125 were neutralised, unlike the situation till 2019 when for every 100 terrorists produced, 70 were killed, leaving the remainder 30 in circulation,” Singh told TOI.
This, he underlined, has tipped the balance in favour of counter-terror forces and is the result of the latter’s three-pronged strategy that involves eliminating active terrorists before they can strike while also cracking down on overground workers (OGWs) by booking and arresting them — thus making day-to-day survival of terrorists difficult. Apart from this, terror associates who lob grenades for terrorists and arrange weapons have also be been arrested.
Singh told TOI that while 119 terrorists were neutralised until June 23 this year, the number of fresh local recruits in the same period fell to just 49 from 100-plus and 120 in the corresponding period of 2019 and 2018 respectively. “Of the 119 terrorists killed in the last five-and-a-half months, 60 were from Hizbul Mujahideen, 20-plus from Lashkar-e-Taiba and 20 from Jaish-e-Mohammad,” he said. Similarly, 250 OGWs were booked and arrested over the past five-and-a-half months. Another 35-40 associates have also been arrested since January.
Interestingly, local protests and stone-pelting have not been much of an impediment. “There is a decisive change in people’s attitude as the J&K police and forces are making a conscious bid to keep the operation as clean as possible. This means not allowing any collateral damage like killing of civilians; remaining helpful to the locals during the encounter; ...and giving the militant, in case he is a local recruit and inexperienced, an opportunity to surrender,” said Singh.
According to the DGP, local recruitment has been on the decline this year. The police have been making an effort to deny the locals a trigger to pick up the gun by avoiding civilian killings, getting families to appeal to new recruits for surrender. “Besides, many recruits are getting killed within a week to two months of joining militancy,” said Singh.