Author: Press Trust of India
Publication: The Newstime
Date: May 26, 2003
From secure fortified bases 35 km
deep inside Indian territory in thick jungles near here, militants mostly
foreign mercenaries, for over three years used satellite phones to make
hundreds of calls to apparent modular cells all over the country raising
concerns of the intelligence agencies.
"The calls were made to numbers
in Chennai, North-East, Hyderabad, Ranchi, Patna, Aligarh as well as to
Srinagar and Jammu," senior army commanders conducting the 'Sarp Vinash'
operations in jungles in the Pir Panjal range above here told visiting
newsmen.
Intense combing operations are on
and so far army which have used helicopters and missiles have busted 93
militant hideouts killing 63 of an estimated 350 militants who were holed-up
in these hideouts since 2000. The sophisticated satellite phones seized
from the main militant command centre, when army forces took the militants
by surprise in the first major attack of the operations in early April
this year at Hill Kaka also had details of the militants having made frequent
calls to Sialkot, Muzzafarbad, Kotii, Islamabad, Abbot bad and other places
in Pakistan, army commanders said. "We have handed over the twin sets of
satellite phones to intelligence agencies who are now going through the
data to conduct raids," army officials said.
Asked why the authorities had not
used tapping devices to trace the use of satellite phones, Major Gen Hardev
Lidder, the officer commanding the ongoing operations, said operational
units of the army had no such equipment and it normally was the task of
civilian intelligence agencies. It is well known that agencies like the
Intelligence Bureau and Army Intelligence often intercept and record militant
communication and it appears a big question mark how communications of
militants from Hill Kaka went unnoticed.
Such interceptions would have given
the intelligence agencies the information about the militant hideouts,
but it was only when one of the holed-out militants surrendered that the
intelligence agencies came to know of elaborate fortifications set up in
deep jungles south of the Pir Panjal range, in almost a true copy of Kargil
intrusions. Army commanders said subsequent to the information given by
the surrendered militant, helicopter reconnaissance patrol had noticed
a bunker an snow crest at the height of 3689 metres, which was impregnable
and later as the operation unfolded it was only an air-to-^round missile
fired from a helicopter that slew up the bunker almost on top of the mountain
range.
army commanders said that use of
new locating devices like the, sensors, Israeli portable reconnaissance
radars, hand held thermals and night visions had proved of great help in
destroying militant hideout and causing disarray among them.
Though the operational commanders
would lot divulge the number and units involved, sources said a number
of special forces formation including the 9 Para commando, whose home turf
is Poonch and Rajauri sector had been extensively used with devastating
effect on militants.
Surprisingly, the army while conducting
combing operations have for the first time come across written accounts
maintained by ultras of infiltrating and exfiltrating militants, the arms
carried and given to them and money transactions, running into hundreds
of crores of rupees.
While going through these records,
it was easily discernible that local participation in the militancy was
almost minimal, with foreign mercenaries, now mostly Pakistani jehadi recruits
forming almost 90 per cent of militant ranks. Military experts said that
most of the militant bases were almost military fortifications, some boasting
of huge underground chambers which could accommodate 30 to 40 militants
at a time and bad elaborate multi exit points to facilitate getaway in
case of raids. To newsmen's queries whether the bases could have been built
by regular Pakistani forces, army commanders ruled it out, but did not
discount the presence of ex-servicemen in the militant ranks.
They said the fortifications had
been well sited in deep thick jungles, mountain caves and on snowline ridges,
just 25 to 35 km from the Line of Control with access from Poonch, Mendhar,
Surankot as well as Thanamandi side and on the other side providing quick
movement across the Pir Panjal into the Kashmir valley.
The busting of these almost military-like
fortifications, intelligence sources said, has raised concerns that Pakistani
military designs on Jammu & Kashmir has main thrust on building command
and control centres along with arms caches to use them to disrupt Indian
army lines of communications in case of conflict. There have been reports
circulating in Kashmir valley of militants having such fortifications in
Kalaroos and Rajawar areas of north Kashmir frontier district of Kupwara,
upper reaches of scenic Lolab valley, Bandipur forests, Wadhwan valley,
Marwah in Kishtawar and upper reaches of North Pir Panjal Nilgag and Tatakut
forests leading to Surankot.
Army commanders said as part of
extension of 'Operation Sarp Vinash', Rashtriya Rifles units of Victor
Force in the valley were now engaged in combing operations in north Pir
Panjal and had already killed 20 militants who had fled from Hill Kaka
and nearby areas. On the 'Operation Sarp Vinash', Lidder said intense combing
operations were continuing with security forces having searched only 30
to 40 per cent of the 100 square kilometre area where Pakistani militants
had set up hideouts.
