Officials deny IS imprint in J&K, ask recruits to return

SRINAGAR: We killed around 125130 terrorists in the hinterlands of Kashmir Valley this year. This resulted in a remarkable change in the situation.

LT GENERAL JS SANDHU, general officer commanding of the 15 Corps

Kashmir director general of police SP Vaid on Sunday dismissed reports that the Islamic State was active in the Valley, a day after security forces carried out a major operation against militants in the state.

“I don’t think ISIS has any imprint here,” he said at a joint press conference of security forces heads held in Srinagar. “Kashmir will be free of violence very soon. Yesterday’s operation has cleaned up the area. I am sure people can now live their lives without any fear of terror.”

Vaid was referring to an antiterror operation on Saturday evening, when six militants – including two Lashkar-e-Taiba commanders and the nephew of Mumbai terror attacks plotter Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi – were killed by security forces in north Kashmir’s Bandipora district. No militant managed to escape from the scene of the encounter.

Lt General JS Sandhu, general officer commanding (GOC) of the 15 Corps, said security forces have killed around 190 terrorists so far this year. “Of these, around 66 were eliminated while trying to infiltrate through the line of control,” he added.

Sandhu elaborated on the various measures undertaken by security forces to counter terror attacks, and encourage local terror recruits to return to mainstream society. “We killed around 125-130 terrorists in the hinterlands of Kashmir Valley this year. This resulted in a remarkable change in the situation here. We inducted special forces into service, and were practically launching search ops on a daily basis,” he said.

Referring to Saturday’s encounter, he said: “Six terrorists were eliminated. None of them were locals.”

CRPF inspector general (operations) Zulfikar Hassan exhorted local recruits to return home, and assured they would be treated with dignity. “Locals who have turned to militancy can always come back. Police, army and CRPF helplines can be used to contact us,” he said.