Says maintaining the current stability biggest challenge
No new terror recruitment in the region
2021 CF intact being followed from both sides
Number of active terrorists has dropped to 80
SOP’s on highway temporary not permanent
Terrorism continues to be fueled from across the border
Terrorists keep moving as they cannot survive at one place
Srinagar, Oct 03: The outgoing General Officer Commanding (GoC) of Srina-gar-based 15 Corps, Lieutenant General Rajiv Ghai on Thursday said that the security situation in Kashmir valley is peaceful and stable. He said the Army is trying hard to guard and combat numerous infiltration attempts by individual elements along the borders.
Addressing a press conference at 15 corps headquarters in Srinagar today, he said the security situation in Kashmir has shown significant improvement over the past few years, and the biggest challenge is to maintain the current stabil-ity.
“Over the past several years, we have witnessed considerable development in the region. In my view, this progress has been made possible by the stable sit-uation, achieved through the significant efforts of the Army and its sister agen-cies, including the J&K Police, CAPF, and other organizations,” GOC Ghai said.
He said that there has been no new terror recruitment in the region, and the number of active terrorists has dropped to around 80, making it almost negli-gible. The situation in the region is positive and peaceful, though terrorism continues to be fueled from across the border, GOC Ghai said.
The Army Commander further said they were dealing with numbers surpas-sing the 100-mark. Now that figure has come down. The figure is sustained by the perpetrators at a certain number, which is considered critical to sustain the terrorism ecosystem, he said.
“It has been the endeavour of the security forces to actively and aggressively bring these numbers down., and I think we have succeeded. Now the official figure is at 80,” GoC Ghai added.
He further said that the Army successfully foiled infiltration attempts by ter-rorists from across the border, adding that there have been fewer infiltration attempts this summer.
Responding to a question about the withdrawal of troop cut at this juncture, the GoC said that they are in a consolidation phase and no dilution of counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism grids is recommended.
“Both grids need to be maintained. I definitely won’t advocate any dilution of these grids at this stage,” he added.
About frequent terrorist attacks in the Pir Panjal region, he said that there were chances that the terrorists may attempt to take shelter in Kashmir. “Terrorists keep moving as they cannot survive in one place,” he said.
He further stated that the ceasefire announced in February 2021 was intact and was being followed by both sides.
“Indian Army is addressing the issue of drug trafficking in Kashmir and has launched various initiatives, including promoting sports and cultural activities. Several young people from the Valley have brought pride to the country through their achievements in sports,” he added.
About the presence of launch pads in PoK side, GOC Ghai said that there were people on launch pads across the LoC, but there were not many attempts of in-filtration made this summer. Infiltration happens from areas other than LoC like we saw in Jammu. This is why numbers have increased a little in that re-gion,” he said.
“Army is getting intelligence about the infiltration and exuded confidence that the number of active terrorists will decrease. I am confident that these num-bers will decrease significantly as we are getting intelligence now,” he said.
About the Kokernag encounter last year in which two Army and one police of-ficer were killed, he said that it was not an attack but an Army operation.
“Kokernag was not an attack… It was Army’s operation, and we were surprised as well. Colonel Manpreet and DySP Humayun had reached the hideout by walking throughout the night, but in the last stage, when they were deliberat-ing, the opposition opened fire, and they got injured,” he said.
On the number of foreign terrorists present in the valley, he said 25 to 40 for-eigners are active here. “We will have successful operations in the future,” he said, adding it will decrease the number of terrorists.
On the ceasefire with Pakistan at the Line of Control (LoC), he said that the ceasefire with Pakistan is intact. Terrorism will continue to decline, paving the way for lasting peace in Kashmir, he added.
Responding to the use of ‘Ultra’ communication system, the Army Command-er said this system has multiple layers of encryption, currently providing terror groups with a high level of secrecy.
“The efforts are underway to break this encryption, which he believes will sig-nificantly weaken the terrorist network. The progress in this area would impact the operations of terror groups,” he said.
Responding to a question about the weaponization of mobile phones in the Is-rael-Lebanon conflict, Lt Gen Ghai said that every military innovation world-wide is analyzed by the Indian Army to derive lessons.
He acknowledged that the evolving trends in the Middle East were unique and would be studied closely to determine their relevance to India’s defense pre-paredness.
In response to a question about the challenges faced by the people of South Kashmir due to Army convoy movements following the 2019 Pulwama attack, the Army Commander clarified that the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) are temporary and not meant to be permanent.
“The SOPs were not introduced to cause inconvenience to the public but to counter the threat posed by terrorists and other hostile elements. The convoy movement schedule is regularly adjusted. We are highly sensitive to maintain-ing our connection with the people, and this comes from our experience of be-ing deployed here. For us, the well-being of the people remains the top priori-ty,” he said.
The Army Commander also wished the people of Kashmir continued peace and encouraged them to embrace the many opportunities that lie ahead.
