‘Human, technical intelligence leading to gunfights, Security Grid on high alert’
TDD Correspondent
Srinagar,(TDD): With early signs of winter in Kashmir bringing intense chill along, security experts Monday said that the development is pushing militants who otherwise hide in forests, to residential areas which ultimately lead to gunfights.
A top security official, wishing not to be named said that security grid has heightened it’s human and technical intelligence to ensure every militants who enters any residential area for shelter gets neutralised.
The two back to back encounters in Sopore is a case in point. As per the security officials militants killed in Sopore had left their forest shelter in view of intense cold and taken refuge in a residential area. The result, sources said, was quick human and technical intelligence that led to two back to back encounters within 24 hours in Sopore that saw elimination of three militants. Similarly, the killing of a foreign militant, Usama, in congested Khanyar area of Srinagar was also seen the outcome of quick flow of both technical and human intelligence.
Earlier, last week, two local militants were killed in Bandipora, who according to police were looking for winter hideout but got trapped and killed. The latest gunfight in zabarwan forest range in Srinagar, though a short one, was the outcome of technical as well as human intelligence ss well. The militants managed to flee as per police.
Police said ahead of the snowfall, there is possibility of more encounters in Kashmir as survival in forests and caves becomes near to impossible.
“Our grid is strong and we are following inputs to track down the movement of militants in Srinagar and rest of the Valley, ” a top security official told the Diplomat.
He said at times militants manage to flee but that doesn’t mean they are not being tracked. Finding shelter in the residential areas areas has become more difficult for the militants following the recent statement of LG Manoj Sinha that those who provide shelter to militants will see their houses getting razed to rubble. The Valley’s security grid is on high alert in view of increasing inputs about terrorist movements-(TDD)
