Centre asks forces to plan major offensive in Kashmir

Security forces are planning to take an aggressive stand to crush growing terrorism in the Valley and prevent people from joining terror outfits such as LeT or Hizbul Mujahideen mainly active in various districts of south Kashmir.
The Union home ministry is learnt to have asked security agencies to draw up a concrete plan to stem public support which hampers anti-terror operations.
The instructions come days after Union home minister Rajnath Singh said the government had a “concrete strategy” for a “permanent solution” to the Kashmir issue.
The central government has devised a three-pronged strategy — launching an offensive against terrorists, keeping a tab on writers and journalists who also work in various government departments and tightening the noose on separatists — to crush terrorism in the state.
According to highly-placed sources, the Centre may ask governor N N Vohra to directly oversee the combat operations. CM Mehbooba Mufti, who also holds home portfolio and heads the unified headquarters of security agencies, including the Army, will be kept in the loop only when the agencies take on terrorists in an encounter.
The Army, said sources, has decided to launch “operation clean-up” against terrorists in Anantnag, Pulwama, Shopian and Kulgam in south Kashmir.
Security agencies have already identified columnists, writers and journalists, many of whom are retired judges, former bureaucrats and government servants, who “incite” violence through articles and are paid by “hawala conduits”, sources said.
The CID special branch, the sources said, has prepared a list of 20 such people, including a retired high court judge, branding them as “secessionist writers”.
Intelligence agencies are reportedly concerned about the increasing number of attendees at the funerals of terrorists. Overground workers put up photographs of terrorists in combat uniforms and holding weapons, on social media platforms to attract youths to join LeT and HM.
The state government has been asked to check the misuse of social media. Recent raids on separatist leaders have also served as a warning, sources said. The state government has removed DSP Faheem Ali, who was security in-charge of Hurriyat chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq for nearly a decade.