It is roping in locals for terrain knowledge, and targeting suspected informants.
Terrorist group Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), once virtually wiped out from Kashmir, is back in action and has consolidated its base giving security forces cause for serious concern.
“The JeM has captured the area of Lashkar-e-Taiba. The LeT is on the wane now. In a change of tactic, they have taken a lot of locals into the ranks as they have terrain knowledge,” a senior Army officer said.
The JeM is full of foreign terrorists who infiltrated from across the Line of Control (LoC). To consolidate their base, they started going after suspected sources. In the past 15 to 20 days alone, six or seven people who were perceived as informants were targeted. “They are trying to stop the flow of information to security forces,” the officer said. In fact, a poster was put up in Tral recently, the southernmost part of North Kashmir, asking people not to participate in the Army’s sadbhavana[goodwill] activities as they believe it is a way of recruiting sources by security forces.
There are an estimated 50 JeM terrorists in the hinterland, over 30 in South Kashmir and 20 in North Kashmir. Tral, which is just 40 minutes from Srinagar or 15-20 km away, has now become the headquarters of the JeM. Within that, Hajjin is of particular concern with its proximity to Srinagar and the confined location.
Increasing recruitment
“Hajjin has become a problem. It is very densely populated and they [JeM] have started taking advantage of it. The last two operations have not been successful. It has to be dealt in detail,” the officer said.
In recent times, the top leadership has been eliminated in quick operations but the numbers are still a concern. Recruitment is on the rise especially in Pulwama and Shopian. The average recruitment for the whole of Kashmir has gone up to 10 per month this year compared to seven or eight last year. Elaborating the measures to counter this, the officer said the primary way was to increase engagement with the public by events and tours under sadbhavana. “The apple season is over, schools are closed and winter has set in. This is the time for recruitment. Our engagement has to be increased to ensure the youth do not go to the other side,” the officer said.
