Author: Times News Networks &
PTI
Publication: The Times of India
Date: June 9, 2003
Defence minister George Fernandes
will visit Surankote in Jammu and Kashmir on Monday to review the army's
ongoing Operation Sarp Vinash against terrorists in the Hill Kaka area.
Over 100 terrorists have been killed
and around 120 of their underground bunkers, hideouts and caches destroyed
in the last two months in the area.
Apart from arms and ammunition,
a satellite phone, three cellular phones and a host of documents and pictures
were found at the terrorist hideouts. The seized material indicates
that the terrorists, mostly Pakistani mercenaries, may have been planning
strikes in other parts of the country.
For instance, one of the terrorists
killed had photographs showing him pointing towards India Gate
and Parliament in Delhi. Similarly, photographs of some high-rise
buildings in Mumbai were also seized during the operation. Some militants
had got themselves photographed in south Mumbai's Bhuleshwar
locality, where several high-rise buildings and the Raj Bhavan are located.
Informed sources said there was
evidence that militants had reconnoitred the area and were planning
to carry out their nefarious designs, including detonating a series
of bombs, in a replay of the 1993 serial blasts.
The terrorists' intention was apparently
to whip up communal tension in the metropolis and dub it "revenge
for the communal riots in Gujarat", they said.
The militants had also planned to
target the specially-designed colony of Vashi in Navi Mumbai, where
flats of several prominent nonresident Indians are located, the sources
said, and added that this was aimed at creating a fear-psychosis among
the NRIs and putting a check on their investments in India.
Several photographs of militants
posing before the prestigious South Block and North Block in the national
capital were also recovered from the bunkers smashed in the Hill Kaka area
by the army
Earlier, there have been similar
instances of militants posing in front of their targets before carrying
out the attack, as was done by the terrorists who carried out an audacious
attack on Parliament House on December 13,2001.
The five militants had recced the
area and got themselves photographed before it while posing as tourists.
They had managed to cover all sides and angles of the building. The
photographs were downloaded from a laptop recovered from one
of them.
Senior army officers will brief
Mr Fernandes about 'Sarp Vinash' at Jaran Wali Gali, the '6 Sector' of
'the Rashtriya Rifles' Romeo Force, which is spearheading the operation.
"Terrorists from all major 'tanzims'
like Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish, Al Badr and Hizbul Mujahideen even had
a common command post in Hill Kaka from where they coordinated
action," said an army officer.
Militants were ruling the area and
the nomads located there were virtually following their diktats because
of the fear of the gun, added the sources.
