Author: Mohit Kandhari
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: April 2, 2010
URL: http://www.dailypioneer.com/246381/Six-more-LeT-terrorists-gunned-down-in-Rajouri.html
27 killed in a week; armed forces on alert
Killing of a dozen Pakistani militants in
six days in Rajouri district alone has put the counter insurgency grid here
in Jammu region on high alert.
Although troop concentration has visibly gone
down in the area during the recent relocation of troops from the frontier
Rajouri district, the field units present in the rugged terrain are making
every possible effort to plug the infiltration routes in order to prevent
infiltrators from sneaking into the Indian side from across the Line of Control.
An entire mountain division was shifted out
of the region as part of the ongoing exercise during 2008-09.
The spectre of 'hot summers' ahead also looms
large as the Indian Army is suspecting presence of more than 300 militants
waiting across different launching pads to infiltrate into the Indian territory
with the melting of snow in the coming days.
Already a total number of 22 militants have
been killed by the Indian security forces across Jammu and Kashmir in a week
while five army jawans have also sacrificed their lives in a series of gunfights.
A day after security forces lost five of their
jawans and eliminated four Pakistani militants in a fierce gunfight, six more
LeT militants were killed by the joint team of security forces in Sarsoti
forest area of Bagla in Kalakote tehsil of Rajouri on Thursday, taking the
militant toll to 14 in the last one week.
In January this year, a total number of 13
militants were killed while February saw killing of 25 militants. In March,
more than 20 militants were killed by the joint team of security forces. As
many as 18 soldiers and 12 civilians have also lost their lives during the
same period in different encounters.
The encounter in Sarsoti lasted for over two
hours after the first contact was established with the militants around 1.45
pm, army spokesman of Nagrota-based 16th corps headquarters said.
The terrorists killed in Thursday's operation
have been identified as Furkan, Badathala, Chotatala, Shaqur, Mabiya and Osama
by the security forces. They are all LeT cadre, the spokesman said.
"Among them, one is believed to be a
local resident while five others were foreign terrorists," Army spokesman
said.
Meanwhile, accumulation of heavily-armed militants
in a particular forest belt has already raised serious question marks over
the manner in which thorough searches were conducted along the Line of Control
during the last week. It may be mentioned that the movement of a large group
of suspected people near the LoC was first noticed by the local residents
in the area on March 23 after which a high alert was sounded in the area.
The Army authorities of counter insurgency
grid in the Jammu region are already suspecting that the recent crop of infiltrators
killed in three back-to-back encounters in Rajouri district possibly belongs
to the same group of suspected people whose movement was first spotted on
March 23 near LoC in Pallanwala.
In all these recent gunfights, the militants
were armed with sophisticated weaponry and carried ultra modern navigational
tools to find their way inside the Indian territory.
A total number of 31 militants have been eliminated
in the first three months of this year in the Jammu region alone while equal
number of them have been killed in the Kashmir valley.
In the Jammu region, 14 militants have been
killed in the last five days. Four militants were killed on Saturday, two
each in Rajouri and Kishtwar districts. Another four were killed in an 18-hour
long operation late on Tuesday in Rajouri.
According to official sources, a total number
of 60 militants have been killed in first three months, averaging 20 militants
in a month.
The Indian security forces have managed to
eliminate more than one dozen top commanders of Lashkar-e-Tayyeba and Hizbul
Mujahideen thus breaking the backbone of the militant outfits.
