'Desperate J and K militants may attempt Purulia-type arms-drop'

Attempts at a Purulia-type arms-drop in Jammu and Kashmir as an act of desperation by the militants cannot be ruled out as they were facing a severe arms and ammunition crunch, says Lieutenant General S Padmanabhan, General-Officer-Commanding-in-Chief, Northern Army Command.

''But it is not easy to do that in Jammu and Kashmir due to the presence of the army and the central police forces and the active air surveillance system of the Indian Air Force,'' the army commander said.

Several effective steps have already been taken to defeat such attempts by the militants, the general said.

In an interview to Sainik Samachar, the pictorial fortnightly of the armed forces, the general admitted that there were a number of training camps across the border. He conceded that there may be as many as 1,000 to 1,500 militants in these camps waiting to sneak into India.

''We have captured many militants while trying to infiltrate into our areas in small numbers both in the valley and the Rajouri-Poonch sector. There have been reports that some of them are coming through Bangladesh, Nepal and even the Rajasthan border.''

In reply to a question, Lt Gen Padmanabhan said there may be about 3,000 militants of all shades in the valley including their supporters and sympathisers.

Out of these, only 10 to 15 per cent may be termed as real militants, he said. Thus, the number of active militants operating in Jammu and Kashmir may not be more than 450 whereas the number of foreign militants is believed to be between 300 to 400, he said.

''By next spring the valley will be normal,'' the general said emphatically. ''The border state might not become entirely incident-free even then, but generally speaking it should be normal.

''I think the people of Kashmir are sick of death and blood and this has been demonstrated by them when they defied threats from the militants to cast their votes and elect a government after a gap of more than eight years,'' he pointed out.

The general claimed the morale of the militants was very low. ''They have paid a heavy price for their misadventures in the past and are now selecting soft targets for their hit-and-run actions,'' he said. ''Various militant outfits have been facing a leadership crisis since 1995 as the army's strategy to target their leaders had paid off."

''Owing to this, foreign militants have been brought in to stiffen up local groups. Most of the foreigners are totally disillusioned as they found the situation in J and K totally different from what they were led to believe," Lt Gen Padmanabhan added.

''During interrogation most of them have confessed this openly and blamed Pakistan for painting a wrong picture of Kashmir and the state of Islam in the valley,'' the general said. Most of the foreign mercenaries, he said, are from Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Elaborating on his strategy to fight militancy, Lt Gen Padmanabhan said, ''It is quite simple. A dynamic counter-insurgency grid has been adopted with adequate strike forces.''

Once an area is cleared it is handed over to the central police forces. Recently one area was handed over to the Border Security Force. There are plans to hand over more areas to the BSF, he said.

Answering a query on the recent upward trend in killings, he said it did not mean a revival of militancy as 76 per cent of the deaths were not due to militancy but issues like personal enmity. Some people died in the crossfire or in accidents. The number of militancy-related killings may not be more than 20 per cent or so, he said.

The year 1994, he revealed, was a turning point as far as militancy in J and K was concerned. The common people started coming forward discreetly with information about militant activities. He said he personally considered this a ''major trend'' which suggested an early end to militancy in the state. The same thing happened in Punjab a few years back as the people there also turned against militancy.

On the sensitive human rights issue, the general claimed most of the allegations were motivated to defame the troops. In the northern theatre, out of a total of 584 allegations of rights violations during the past seven years, only 22 had been proved to be correct and 52 army personnel punished in connection with the violations.

Human rights violations were a matter of shame for any army, but as far as the Indian army is concerned its record is outstanding, he said.

The general felt there could be no military solution to militancy in Jammu and Kashmir as armies could kill militants, but ending militancy was quite different. ''Causes of militancy vary from socio-economical to political and for a permanent solution, determination, patience, will power and, above all, active and sincere participation by all is required.''

UNI