SRINAGAR: Of the four tasks that the Army is doing in the stale, recent gains in the most sensitive and least coordinated job of counterinsurgency (CI) Operations, have been in the form of actionable intelligence and information flow available to troops in various sectors of the valley.
This has led to the targeting of prized militants, dipping once again the morale of the innumerable militant sympathizers referred to as “over ground workers” those committed to the Azadi cause, but operating within the law as motivators, financers and planners.”
According to headquarters 15 corps (highest headquarters directly involved in (Cl operations) perception as given out by C.S.Panag, the brigadier general staff, there are no “liberated zones” in the state. There is not an inch of the Valley that the Army does not dominate at will. It is another matter that the Army cannot be present at all places, all times.
The point is established by the fact that two reinforced Amy divisions (around 30,000 troops) in the Valley are committed to CI operations, The recently in ducted 39 mountain division is at Anantnag. It has two brigades and the Rastriya Rifles (RR) sector forces under its command, RR is an euphemism for regular Army brigade troops. The other, 8 mountain division with four brigades at Sharifabad has been in the Valley since over three years. This division since its inception 25 years ago in the North East has been trained in Cl role.
To choke the insurgents free run across the Line of Control (LoC) and to discourage any ad venturesome by Pakistan, an additional eight reinforced divisions are deployed in the state, These are for the LoC management and as roving hard hitting mobile brigades to curb in filtration and exfiltration by insurgents into POK. “This has resulted in sealing the over 5O0km Lo€ as much is humanly possible,” observed an officer.
The state also has nearly 48% of the total 150 BSF battalions (1,71,000 troops) positioned under the command of the army along the LoC and independently in Valley urban areas under 31 subarea at Srinagar. “Under an additional director general for the state, the BSF has emerged as a good counterinsurgency force,” observed a senior Army officer.
Notwithstanding this preponderance of Cl trained troops, the Amy has succeeded primarily only in keeping lines of communication open through intensive patrolling done by its road opening parties (ROPs). These include Jammu Srinagar (IA) high way, Srinagar Leh and Srinagar Baramulla Uri roads required to be kept operative round the year.
Article extracted from this publication >> August 27, 1993
