Author: PTI
Publication: Daily Excelsior
Date: May 2, 2005
URL: http://www.dailyexcelsior.com/web1/05may02/news.htm#5
Despite fall in militancy-related
violence and winds of Indo-Pak peace process blowing in Jammu and Kashmir,
nearly 2000 armed militants were still operating in the State, a top Army
official claimed today.
"Despite fall in the militancy violence
and peace winds blowing up in J&K, nearly 2000 militants are still
operating in the State to keep the pot of militancy boiling," General Officer
Commanding (GOC) 16 Corps, Lt Gen Sudhir Sharma said at Nagrota-based headquarters
here.
Over 1000 militants are operating
in Jammu division in south of Pir Panchal ranges and rest in Kashmir areas,
he said adding that largest number of ultras belong to Hizb-ul-Mujahideen.
"The number of the militants in
Kashmir and Jammu regions continue to change in view of the pressure from
security forces," he said adding Surankote forests (Poonch) tops hard core
militancy areas followed by Kishtwar and Gool areas of Doda and Udhampur
respectively.
Sharma said the graph of militancy
has "gone down and number of encounters have decreased greatly" during
the last six months.
"However it goes up and down," he
said adding basically militants are on run due to pressure from security
forces as most of their dreaded top commanders were killed during past
one year.
Sharma said "Army is playing big
role in assisting J&K people, particularly living in most remote areas
by undertaking development works from construction of schools, bridges,
roads to mini-hydel power projects".
The Army is also part of the Indo-Pak
peace process and has been instrumental in construction and renovation
of the roads and Aman Setu between the two countries, he said.
"We have opened Uri-Muzaffarabad
road and now we will also open Poonch-Rawalkote road to strengthen people-to-people
relationships further," he said.
"In the re-construction of the State,
Army plays a major role and helps J&K Goverment to speed up its peace
building process as well", he said.
Claiming that militants were targetting
civilians to create an 'element of fear' among them, the GOC said "this
shows signs of their demoralising morale as they are on run".
He expressed optimism that the mindset
of people living in remote villages of J&K is changing fast with the
return of normalcy. "With decreasing support to militancy now, Army's counter-insurgency
operations have become more focussed and successful," he added.
"People in remote villages in the
past provided support (to terrorists) out of fear. As the fear factor reduces,
the confidence level of the people increases," he added.
