Author: Arun Joshi
Publication: The Hindustan Times
Date: June 17, 2002
Hindus are no longer safe in the
hills. Militants have renewed their campaign against them in Jammu's forested
hills and are maiming them with the objective of making them to flee to
the plains. This suits their agenda to have liberated zones in the hills
- - the kinds they have already set up in the upper reaches of Surankote
in Poonch and also in Marwah -Dacchan in Doda, the landlocked district
north of Jammu .
Two massacres of Hindus in less
than 24 hours in Doda and Udhampur districts since Saturday afternoon has
reinforced the militants' agenda. They want to capture the hills, set up
their bases and run training camps and execute more terror against India.
"Otherwise, what sense does it make
to kill children who were returning after a pilgrimage or to kill elderly
people in their homes", asks Vijay Kumar of Doda who migrated here few
years ago when widespread violence against the minority community had started
in Gandoh.
For the militants, the circumstances
are in their favour Almost all the troops tasked with counter insurgency
operations in these hills were shifted to the borders after the December
13 assault on Parliament. Many more joined them on the LoC and international
border after the Kaluchak massacre.
This has given the militants a free
run of the upper reaches. "Once they set up themselves in the mountains,
it is near impossible to uproot them", conceded a senior Rashtriya Rifles
officer.
"Now they are expanding their area
of influence", noted the senior army officer. Obviously their targets are
Hindus and pro-India Muslims whom they suspect of helping security forces.
But killing Hindus helps them because
the situation has the potential to cause communal trouble -- something
they have been trying to achieve and also create a fear psychosis that
leads to migration.
Army to train civilians to escape
blasts
In a bid to check civilian casualties
in grenade explosions triggered by militants, the army has chalked out
a programme to train the locals in tactics to be adopted to escape blasts,
a senior army officer said on Sunday.
The army, along with civil administration
and police, would soon provide necessary guidance to people of the Valley
to save them from grenade attacks carried out by militants at crowded places,
General Officer Commanding, Victor Force, Maj Gen R.S. Jamwal said.
