“She was told that a routine search operation was being carried out in Shopian on a tip off,” a senior PDP leader told this reporter. The Centre’s directive is in contrast to the CM’s wish who had asked the state’s DGP and other senior police officers to start the process of counselling of all “angry youths”, including stone-pelters and boys who have joined the militant ranks recently.
The CM’s isolation is going to further strain the alliance between her People’s Democratic Party and the BJP. If PDP ministers and government sources are to be believed, Mehbooba Mufti is upset with the way the Centre is dealing the Kashmir situation and she has conveyed her displeasure to New Delhi.
CM Mehbooba is going to hold discussions with her senior party leaders on how to deal with its ally BJP. She is expected to make a decision on the future of the alliance in the coming weeks, PDP sources told this reporter. Sensing her isolation, Mehbooba showered praise on Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday, saying that the PM alone can help the people of Jammu and Kashmir come out of the uncertainty.
Meanwhile, the Army has decided to step up operations across Kashmir in order to regain ground, sources told The Sunday Guardian. Following the recent attacks by militants on policemen and on banking facilities, they have sought men, machinery and aerial help, especially in volatile South Kashmir.
Chief of the Army Staff General Bipin Rawat, who was recently in Kashmir, has told his ground commanders to start anti-militancy operations. On Thursday, a huge cordon and search operation was carried out in Shopian after 30 armed militants were seen roaming about in the orchards there in a video. Sources said the Rashtriya Rifles, CRPF, BSF and SOG of J&K Police have been told to prepare themselves for operations. The Army commanders in Kashmir have told their chief that they need more men and more mine-protected vehicles (MPVs), bullet-proof rakshaks and also aerial help, if needed. House-to-house search operations were carried out by 4,000 strong Army men and paramilitary forces, bringing back the spectre of the 1990s when such exercises were common.
After the search operation of Thursday, militants struck on a Rashtriya Rifle (RR) vehicle when they were closing the operation and one driver was killed and four RR men were injured in the ambush. Although the operation was being monitored from air by helicopters and unmanned vehicles, the militants managed to flee.
According to sources, the state police is in a dilemma as, on the one hand, they have to go with the Army for anti-militancy operations, and on the other, they are bound to listen to the CM who is also the state’s Home Minister.
“We want to start the channels of communication with all angry youths and we feel their pain and want to bring them back into the mainstream. The killings are not the solution to the growing alienation here,” a senior PDP Minister told this reporter.
According to the state police and intelligence agencies, more than 120 boys have joined the militant ranks in the past few months and many of them have contacted the Hizbul Mujahideen and LeT terrorist groups. The most worrying factor for the Army and the intelligence agencies is the growing public support for militants in Kashmir, especially in South Kashmir.
“We know that there are many boys who have joined militancy in the past few months and we will try to counsel them through their friends and parents to come back. We have been told to counsel the militants and the stone-pelters,” a senior police officer of Pulwama told this reporter.