J & K news and discussion

[sum]

LeT, JeM testing Indian defences

Winter infiltration tests LoC defences

Praveen Swami

SRINAGAR: This week, tens of thousands of police personnel will fan out across Jammu and Kashmir to guard the Lok Sabha elections from any threats, in particular jihadist assaults.

But their adversaries also seem to be prepared. Guided by global positioning system equipment, and specially geared for high-altitude survival, a new wave of infiltrators has succeeded in an enterprise that conventional wisdom has held to be impossible: crossing the Line of Control when the passes across the mountains are still carpeted by snow that is upwards of 40 feet thick.

Last month Jammu and Kashmir saw some of the most intense fighting in years. In one instance, Indian troops were pitted against a group of up to 25 Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad cadre who had traversed the snowfields that separated their base near Athmuqam and the Rajwar forests.

Despite losing seven soldiers in an ambush, troops of the 1 Paracommando Regiment succeeded in killing five terrorists, which forced the group to disperse. Later, police and Army personnel hunted down six more terrorists in villages around Handwara.{So, it was the SF which was ambushed?}

In addition, soldiers from 22 Rashtriya Rifles eliminated seven members of the group at Drangyari, close to the LoC.

But the interception of the group did not stem the surge in infiltration. Last week, at least 16 Hizb ul-Mujahideen operatives pushed their way through the snow-covered Kanzalwan forests of Gurez and headed towards Bandipora. Troops have made fire contact twice with the group, killing at least two terrorists, but there has been no sign of the rest of it.


Eight Lashkar terrorists are believed to have crossed the LoC moving towards Trehgam. Other groups are known to be preparing to cross the Sonapindi Pass from Kel into Macchel.
New tactics

Believed to have been crafted by a Lashkar commander, known only by the aliases Muzammil and Yusuf, the winter-infiltration strategy seems to be based on a careful study of India’s LoC defences.

Kashmir has traditionally seen infiltration in late spring and early summer, after the snow on the mountains melts. The Army’s Srinagar-based XV Corps prepares for this seasonal offensive by pushing additional troops forward, putting up barbed wire and planting electronic sensors. When the passes are snowed over, though, the Army and jihadist groups shifted their energies to the southern stretches of the LoC, in Poonch, Rajouri and Jammu.

Last year, the Lashkar began testing India’s winter defences in Kashmir. Infiltrators probed the Keran and Lolab sectors in late- February 2008, leading to the death of at least five Lashkar and Jaish cadres.

Later, in March 2008, a larger Lashkar group crossed into Handwara — but it lost at least three men while trying to ford a river in sub-zero temperatures.

But enough number of infiltrators evidently made the winter passage to encourage Muzammil to plan this year’s infiltration plans. India’s intelligence services estimate that more than 300 cadres from the major jihadist groups have been trained for cold-weather infiltration.

Lashkar spokesperson Abdullah Ghaznavi — which is a pseudonym for Lahore-based Abdullah Muntazar, spokesperson for the Lashkar’s parent religious group, the Jamaat-ud-Dawa — has publicly exulted in the success of the strategy. “The gun-battles should serve as a message to India,” he said in a recent statement, “that the struggle for Kashmir’s freedom is not over.”

Back in January, after the Lashkar was compelled to close its offices and training camps in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, its language was very different. “If the world listens to our cries and plays its role in resolving the Kashmir issue,” he said, “there is no point in continuing fighting.”

Perhaps the most stark about-turn has been made by the patriarch of the Islamist movement in Jammu and Kashmir, Syed Ali Shah Geelani — whose anti-election campaign will be helped should the violence escalate.

In July 2008, empowered by the communally-charged protests that were sweeping the State, Mr. Geelani insisted that the “struggle should be peaceful.” He further claimed: “We need neither the gun of the mujahideen now, nor the support of Pakistan.”

But at a rally in southern Kashmir on March 29, Mr. Geelani insisted that “armed struggle is the backbone of our struggle. Our issue is internationally acclaimed because of the sacrifices of its martyrs. Such people are our heroes, way ahead of those involved in the political struggle for freedom.”

[Lalmohan]

this kind of adverse weather training can only come from Pak Army mountain warfare type schools... does anyone have any insight on these?

[ramana]

The fundamental disconnect is to consider the LeT as some sort of rogue terrorist outfit. its not. Its the irregular wing of the TSP Army. During the WWII and the Cold War Western intel agencies raised myriads of irregular armies to fight their undeclared warrs. India (elite, armed forces and media) is the only one to keep getting fooled by this tactic due to cognitive dissonance of expecting regular troops in uniforms to conduct war.

[sum]

Govt apathy towards army helping locals

Families who fought infiltrators left out in the cold



HANDWARA: Roshan Khan woke up before dawn, as she had done all her life, and was headed for the yard to milk the cows.

But the cattle weren’t the only thing she found in the cattle shed: a tall young man dressed in white snow gear lay face down in the hay, a Kalashnikov assault rifle propped by his side.

“I wasn’t sure what to do,” she recalls, “so I hollered at him a little and then poked him with a rake.” Luckily for her, the man didn’t wake up. Ms. Khan’s husband, Younus Khan, came out to see what was going on — and promptly called the police.

Half an hour later, the Khan family watched as officers from the Jammu and Kashmir police’s Special Operations Group and the Army battled the terrorist hidden in the cattle shed. Their home was gutted, their belongings were destroyed, and their five cows persished in fire.

Ever since the March 22 shootout, the Khans and their six children have been living with neighbours. Army troops have helped out with a month’s rations, while a police officer has given the family Rs.5,000. But no one from the State government has taken the trouble to visit Shaldori to assess the damage — and there’s been no word on when the Khans might be compensated for the loss of their assets.

North Kashmir’s mountain communities — made up mainly of Gujjar pastoralists — fear that such stories of loss will become more common as spring sets in. Located at the end of the infiltration routes used by Pakistan-based jihadists to cross the mountains into Jammu and Kashmir, villages like Shaldori have found themselves in the middle of some of the most intense fighting in years.

Last month, Ghulam Mohiuddin and Ghulam Mehrajuddin bolted their doors when shots rang near the village of Hafrada, near Handwara. Huddled in the living room, the brothers and their families cowered as machine guns and mortar shells went off all through the night.

In the forests just above the village, troops from the Army’s 1 Paracommando Regiment had just engaged 18 Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists who had crossed the LoC. In the course of the night, soldiers Shabbir Ahmad, Sanjay Singh, Anil Kumar, Netar Singh, Bhakar Sanjay Annasahib, Rajneesh Kumar, Manoj Singh, and the officer who commanded them, Major Mohit Sharma, were killed. But the troops also claimed the life of five of the 18 terrorists in the hills, forcing the rest of the group to disperse.

Early next morning, one of those survivors banged on the Mohiuddin families’ back door. “He told us to get out, and bolted the door behind him,” says Ghulam Mohiuddin’s son, Farooq Ahmad.

Now, the family had a choice: to alert nearby troops of the presence of the uninvited guest, and risk its home being destroyed in the fighting, or to remain quiet until dark and allow him to get away. It wasn’t an easy choice. Built over nine years, the house represented not just the family’s savings but also its hopes. “In the end,” says Ghulam Mohiuddin’s wife, Afroza, “we decided to tell the Army. We wanted to do the right thing.”

Like the Khan family at Shaldori, though, the Mohiuddin and Mehrajuddin families have reason to regret their decision. Despite desperate calls to local administrators and politicians, the family is yet to receive compensation. Indeed, no district official has even visited the village to survey the damage. Troops at Hafrada have helped the families as best they can with rations, but they have been forced to depend on the kindness of neighbours for shelter, fuel and even clothing.

India’s efforts to defeat the surge in cross-LoC infiltration will depend, in no small part, on the goodwill of rural communities. So far, the Jammu and Kashmir government is showing little sign that it wishes to win it.

Why is it always the babus/netas who let the nation down?

[AjayKK]

In Jammu's Camps, No Relief by Aditi Bhaduri ( Excerpts )

http://boloji.com/wfs6/2009/wfs1252.htm

Usha Pandita, 45, feels tired even after the smallest of chores. But that's not unusual for her. She suffers from Pelvic Inflammatory Disease (PID).....

Usha is one of the 10,000 residents of the Purkhoo migrant camp, one of the several camps set up on the outskirts of Jammu for the Kashmiri Pandit community forced to flee the Kashmir Valley when militancy gained ground in the 1990s. From Kupwara, Usha and her family made their way to Purkhoo, which they have called home since 1990. Years have gone by and even militancy is on the wane, yet time seems to have stood still for the inhabitants of the camps. Living in a one-room pigeon hole with a family of four can be trying in itself but the lack of sanitation has only added to the woes. For women, in particular, it is horrifying.

The Purkhoo camp has four phases and each phase has around 300 to 500 rooms. There are 10 toilets each for men and women. So there is one toilet per 150 men/women. The water supply lasts only an hour each day.

Usha has been recommended surgery but her financial condition doesn't permit the procedure. "We still have four 'kanals' (one kanal equals 605 sq. yards) left in Kupwara. We had our own 'chashm' (well) there," she recalls wistfully. She adds, "I did not have to go to a toilet that was used by hundreds of others there."

http://wikimapia.org/#lat=32.8014973&lo ... =0&m=a&v=2

A sad state of how Hindu Pandits have been reduced to live like refugees in their own land. And when the issue of land for Shri Amarnath Yatra comes up, ''leaders'' like Mehbooba and Omar Abdullah rake up " Hinduisation of Kashmir by forced migration" theory.

Even this time, a lot of antics are expected from the ruling party and its supporters across the line

[CRamS]

The fundamental disconnect is to consider the LeT as some sort of rogue terrorist outfit. its not. Its the irregular wing of the TSP Army. During the WWII and the Cold War Western intel agencies raised myriads of irregular armies to fight their undeclared warrs. India (elite, armed forces and media) is the only one to keep getting fooled by this tactic due to cognitive dissonance of expecting regular troops in uniforms to conduct war.

I wonder how they go about recruiting LeT types Vs regular army types. I guess when recruiting LeT, they pick the thorougly indoctrinated Abdul ready to sacrifice himself for the 72.

[sum]

Its the weekend and time for the Hurriyat supporters to unwind after a stressful week spent doing nothing:

Weekend time pass, Hurriyat style

SRINAGAR: At least 12 persons were injured as police fired teargas shells and used batons to disperse stone-pelting mobs protesting the continued
detention of separatist leaders here on Friday.

Shouting pro-freedom and anti-India slogans, scores of youth took to streets at Kawdara in downtown Srinagar shortly after Friday prayers and indulged in stone-pelting on police and paramilitary personnel, official sources said.

Police fired teargas shells and used batons to disperse the mob, which spread to adjoining Rajouri Kadal and Naidkadal areas, the sources said.

They said 12 persons, including five policemen were injured in the clashes.

Meanwhile, eight activists of Tehreek-e-Hurriyat (TEH), founded by chairman of the hard-line faction of Hurriyat Conference Syed Ali Shah Geelani, were taken into preventive custody when they tried to stage a march in the heart of the city in protest against the house arrest of their leader.

Demanding immediate release of Geelani, who was placed under house-arrest on March 30, several activists of the TEH assembled at Partap Park and tried to stage a march, the sources said.

Police tried to restrain the protesters and took eight of them, including district president and former militant commander General Moosa (General??) and Imtiyaz Ahmad respectively into preventive custody, the sources said.

[ramana]

CRS, The recruitment of Kasab is a typical L-e-T modus operandi. Some other terrorists are TSPA droputs. In that case they are following time honored practise of West Punjab soldiers going AWOL from British Indian Army to fight local jihads like the one run by Syed Ahmed Barelvi.

[shaardula]

found this on princeton univ site
pervez hoodboy's documentary: Crossing the Lines: Kashmir, Pakistan, India

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LLnuglrW34

[Dilbu]

400 terrorists waiting to sneak into J&K ahead of polls: Army

New Delhi, Apr 4 (PTI) Amidst reports that 400 trained terrorists were waiting to sneak into Jammu and Kashmir to disrupt coming Lok Sabha polls, the government has ordered stepping up of security in the border state to thwart any attempts to cause violence ahead of the elections.
After a visit by Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta and Defence Secretary Vijay Singh to meet top state officials this week, the order for heightened vigil was issued, Army sources said here today.

There are intelligence inputs that 400 trained terrorists of Lashkar-e-Toiba are waiting to infiltrate into Jammu and Kashmir to disrupt the polls. We have stepped up our alertness to prevent both infiltration and attacks, the sources said.

[jamwal]

There was another stone-pelting session next day when authorities were trying to demolish illegal constructions near Dal Gate area.

[putnanja]

Infiltration rising, Army moves more troops to LoC

[chetak]

Multiple terrorist groups may have merged.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage ... %3a+report

Around 35 Taliban militants have sneaked into India: report

Radio conversation intercepted between Lashkar terrorists reveal that around 35 terrorists have entered the country through Gurez sector, near the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir, according to media reports.

The infiltration attempt began around March 26. According to media reports, intellegence sources have said that around 28 of the 35 terrorists belong to Taliban and nine to Laskar outfit. One terrorists has been reportedly killed in the encounter by the security forces who have engaged the rest near Gurez.

[jamwal]

Intercepts suggest Taliban presence in Kashmir valley

The militancy scenario in Jammu and Kashmir may change as wireless and satellite intercepts suggest presence of a group of nearly 15 ‘Taliban’ militants in higher reaches of Kupwara in north Kashmir.

While all central security forces and agencies and the Army are tight-lipped over the development, sources in the Home Ministry said wireless messages of a group of militants holed up in Chowkibal area of Trehgham in Kupwara were intercepted. Another such communication was heard in Lolab area, also in Kupwara, they said.

The intercepts, the sources claimed, were enough to "shock" the security agencies as one group identified itself as being part of the Taliban which had crossed the Line of Control using the Global Positioning System (GPS)-enabled maps.

Why this sudden focus on "Taliban" ? News agencies are reporting current events like the terrorists that have been operating here had no links with Al Qaeda or Taliban earlier. Approximately 8-10 years ago many terrorists in J&K were Afghans. Why wasn't bogey of Taliban raised then?

[sanjaykumar]

WRT to the post on Pervez Hoodbhoy, I lost respect for him when he took his gora audience into confidence:


But with time, Jinnah's Pakistan has grown weaker, more authoritarian, and increasingly theocratic. Now set to become the world's fourth most populous nation, it is all of several things: a client state of the United States yet deeply resentful of it; a breeding ground for jihad and al Qaeda as well as a key U.S. ally in the fight against international terrorism; an economy and society run for the benefit of Pakistan's warrior class, yet with a relatively free and feisty press; a country where education and science refuse to flourish but which is nevertheless a declared nuclear power; and an inward-looking society that is manifestly intolerant of minorities but that has never seen anything like the state-organized pogroms of India, Afghanistan, Iran, or China.

http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/ ... -of-itself

Of course it may be that he does not consider Bangladesh to be technically a pogrom. Or perhaps he is reffereing strictly to pogroms against minorities not the majority population by a minority, hehehe.

[Rudradev]

CRS, The recruitment of Kasab is a typical L-e-T modus operandi. Some other terrorists are TSPA droputs. In that case they are following time honored practise of West Punjab soldiers going AWOL from British Indian Army to fight local jihads like the one run by Syed Ahmed Barelvi.

Did anyone bring up this connection when interrogations revealed that Kasab (and several of his squadmates, IIRC) were from Okara district?

Okara was where the Pakistan Army brutally put down a 2003 peasants' revolt by the bonded serfs who work on the military-owned farms there. Interesting that it has become a recruiting ground for L-e-T.

http://www.urckarachi.org/Selected%20Ev ... in%20Okara

http://www.urckarachi.org/Selected%20Ev ... at%20Okara

http://www.urckarachi.org/Selected%20Ev ... on%20farms

http://www.urckarachi.org/Selected%20Ev ... ry%20farms

http://www.urckarachi.org/Selected%20Ev ... ontroversy

[Gerard]

2 militants killed in Lolab gunbattle

[ManuT]

Multiple terrorist groups may have merged.
...
Around 35 Taliban militants have sneaked into India: report
...

Can drones be far behind.

[Gaurav_S]

Video: Taliban terrorists enter India

Are these images thermal images?

Alarm at LoC but its jihadis, not Taliban

NEW DELHI: The Line of Control has become red-hot. There is a huge surge in infiltration attempts by well-equipped, hardcore jihadis with a
new-found determination to take the fight to the security forces if they are intercepted.

While the fear, triggered by the presence of a couple of Pashto-speaking jihadis among those trying to come in, about Taliban making a foray into Kashmir was misplaced, the repeated efforts at infiltration marked the determination for a new terror offensive in J&K.

Security forces, taken aback by the sheer intensity of the attempts, say the emerging infiltration pattern this time is significantly different from earlier years on two counts.

One, the infiltration bids have begun quite early this year, much before the snow in the mountain passes has melted, with March itself recording several fierce gunbattles along the border.

For another, larger groups of 20-30 militants are trying to infiltrate together in one go, instead of earlier attempts to sneak across in much smaller batches.

That apart, the terrorists are prepared to engage the security forces at the LoC itself. "Yes, the militants are trying to infiltrate in larger numbers, armed and equipped to directly engage with security forces. Compared to March 2008, infiltration bids have trebled this March," said a source.

Scotching the speculation about Taliban trying to get in, he said, "The infiltrators are militants from Laskhar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed and Al-Badr, largely hailing from Pakistan's Punjab, PoK and North-West Frontier Province areas adjoining PoK. They are not the Taliban cadres."

There are, of course, well-established links between the militant outfits operating in J&K and the growing Taliban movement along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, with training facilities often being shared between them under the benign gaze of ISI.

"Laskhar, Hizb and Jaish have had links with Hezb-e-Islami of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the former Afghan warlord who is now once again emerging in the powerplay in Afghanistan. They can be expanded, especially since jihadis want India enmeshed within the Af-Pak problem," said an official.

It will, however, be difficult to replicate in J&K the typical Taliban tactic of holding ground and then consolidating the Talibanisation process of the territory under control.

Nevertheless, the ongoing infiltration spike across the LoC is sending alarm bells clanging in the Indian security establishment because of the unusual tactics being employed by the terrorists.

The pattern of winter infiltration being witnessed this time, instead of infiltration generally seen towards late-April and early-May, is being compared to similar attempts made in Macchal, Gurez and the snow-capped Shamsabari range during 1996-1998.

"The tactic of infiltration by using nullahs even when there is 8 to 12-feet of snow is being replicated this time," said an officer.

A large group of 25 or so heavily-armed militants, with GPS devices, satellite phones, high-quality winter gear and ice-axes, for instance, was intercepted in the Kupwara sector on March 20. Eighteen terrorists and eight soldiers, including an officer, were killed in the fierce five-day gunbattle which ensued.

The security forces, however, could not successfully ambush another large group of around 35 militants in the Gurez sector on March 25-26. Radio intercepts of these militants have pointed towards the existence of Taliban elements among them.

"One reason could be that the accent or diction of some militants from the NWFP areas adjoining PoK is quite similar to the Pushtu-speaking Taliban," said another officer.

The Army, on its part, has strengthened its multi-tiered counter-infiltration grid along the LoC, with intelligence reports holding that "400 to 500" militants were waiting to sneak into J&K. "There are around 800-900 militants already present in J&K, with almost 50% of them being of foreign origin," said the officer.

[narmad]

Kupwara again: 2 para commandos, 2 militants killed in forest gunbattle

Did not know where to post this.

Two para commandos and two militants were killed in gunbattles in the Maidanpora forests of Lolab in Kupwara as operations spread over six days ended today. While the Army said they were still trying to establish the identity of the militants, police named them as Abu Zarar and Abu Mawiah of the Lashkar-e-Toiba.
Security forces are trying to find out if the militants belonged to a Lashkar team in the area or were from a group that had managed to evade troops after infiltrating in Gurez.
Meanwhile, police sources said an alleged phone intercept of a conversation between two Lashkar militants suggested the presence of Taliban militants in Kupwara.
On March 26, sources said, a militant was heard saying “the new people who have come are all Taliban and they only talk about killing and getting killed... we are really fed up with these people... what do we do?” The person at the other end, sources said, replied: “Throw them out... I will have to consult Bade Bhai.”
Army officials involved in operations since March 20 say the militants they engaged appeared to be highly trained. “We have not witnessed such fighting capabilities among militants operating in Kashmir in the past,” said an officer who took part in two operations against infiltrators in Kupwara.

[Atri]

Alarm at LoC but its jihadis, not Taliban

Does it really matter?

Taliban is not a organization. It is an ideology, a movement and a state of mind. Any indoctrinated fellow hell bent on destroying sub-human infidels by all means possible, is a taliban.

That is one of the stupidest reporting by DDM. WTF..

The assholes who unleashed hell in Mumbai, were they any different from Taliban, in terms of their deeds. Just because they wore t-shirt and were clean-shaven does not make them Non-Taliban or MERELY A JIHADI.

Taliban is an ideology of fanatical Islam. and it is not new to Kashmir. Taliban has been already trying to dominate Kashmir for 20 years, now. And we have defeated that ideology for two decades at a stretch.

The worrying thing is, when Swat is down, can Muzaffarabad be far behind? And when Uri and Muzaffarabad fell, how long can Srinagar sustain. Pakis will willingly sacrifice "Azad Kashmir " to fall in order to save Pakjab. In fact, they will facilitate it. They are type of people who will cut their own flesh and eat it, just to satisfy the hunger one more day. And think that the meal was awesome.

Ideas cannot be stopped by guns alone. They need countering ideology. The ideology that is antagonistic to Taliban is Nationalism in India.

As long as the number of common people are supporting the funerals of the fallen kashmiri martyr of security forces and upholding his nationalistic deeds, Taliban can never be successful in Kashmir.

[Lalmohan]

Of course it may be that he does not consider Bangladesh to be technically a pogrom. Or perhaps he is reffereing strictly to pogroms against minorities not the majority population by a minority, hehehe.

sanjay - in jaswant singh's biog, he mentions meeting nawaz sharief in london in his younger days at a lecture - before either of them were famous. they got on well enough, and then sharief said words to the effect 'don't mind yaar, i have to now make a strong speech, you know its what we have to do to get on, nothing personal'. sharief then took the stage and launched into a vitriolic anti-india speech. i think in pakistan, saying virulently anti-indian things is a standard/mandatory requirement for anyone who wants to avoid being censored/guided/incarcerated in lahore jail as a guest of the ISI

and yes, it is entirely possible that the pakistanis don't register the mass slaughter of short dark rice eating mostly hindu and not really very muslim east bengalis as a real genocide. afterall, they are not really all that human are they? (am using shiv's patented sarcasm drive here before anyone gets offended)

[vsudhir]

War-like situation in 8 places of J&K

Concentrated groups, comprising hundreds of combatants from Pakistan, are reportedly holding ground and battling the Indian Army in eight separate locations in Kashmir Valley.

OMG. What is happening. Anyone in Desh following the 24x7 news channels? Pls to update!

[jamwal]

Multiple encounters in a single day is not a new phenomena, though intensity may be different now.

[Lalmohan]

like i said in a different thread, its a deliberate ploy to keep large numbers of indian troops near the LOC so the pakis can say they cannot move their men to the western front

[Kanson]

War-like situation in 8 places of J&K

Concentrated groups, comprising hundreds of combatants from Pakistan, are reportedly holding ground and battling the Indian Army in eight separate locations in Kashmir Valley.

OMG. What is happening. Anyone in Desh following the 24x7 news channels? Pls to update!

Yes it is frightening. Roy Sir, hinted in Headlines Today discussion, it is something like Kargil and the anchor let out a vague remark, "while Kargil happened the news was not immediately let out". I dont know what made his to say this? Something cooking. Keeping my fingers crossed.

[vsudhir]

Multiple encounters in a single day is not a new phenomena, though intensity may be different now.

Really? I don't think so. Read the full article plz. Excerpted for convenience here:

The emerging scenario from Jammu and Kashmir indicates that the encounters in the north are not mere counter-insurgency rather they form part of a larger conventional conflict between India and Pakistan.

The Army is no longer up against just men whose best weapon is hit and run, because this is no longer just a low-intensity conflict. Rather the army is exchanging fire with a new enemy -- the conventionally trained terrorist.

Built to hold ground and fight back like a soldier, to capture territory and move forward, they're even fighting Indian para commandos and managing to inflict damage.

The militants may not be formally commissioned soldiers of the Pakistan Army, but they're definitely close. The encounters in the Valley are the result of the most organised and concerted intrusions into the state since Kargil. Clearly it indicates that the situation is more like war.

Definitely not garden variety insurgency.

Link

[JwalaMukhi]

Looks like there is some urgent need to extract specific response from India before elections. Mumbai attacks, seems to have not produced that specific response (could be concessions too) from Indian establishment. Escalation of attacks are targetted to obtain that buy-in that can remain valid even after election and its result.

[jamwal]

2 more SF soldiers and 2 porkis dead in Lolab.
Gaawd.. SF soldiers are dying like that?

That was on a local channel. Nothing on national TV channels

JwalaMukhi

Do you really believe that deaths ofa few soldiers in some remote forest will force Indian governemt to take some concrete steps? This govt lacked spine to attack Pakisatan even after Bombay attacks. What makes you think that some deaths in "routine" encounters will make them act different?

[Dilbu]

Kupwara again: 2 para commandos, 2 militants killed in forest gunbattle

Two para commandos and two militants were killed in gunbattles in the Maidanpora forests of Lolab in Kupwara as operations spread over six days ended today. While the Army said they were still trying to establish the identity of the militants, police named them as Abu Zarar and Abu Mawiah of the Lashkar-e-Toiba.

Security forces are trying to find out if the militants belonged to a Lashkar team in the area or were from a group that had managed to evade troops after infiltrating in Gurez. A group of infiltrators, numbering between 15 and 25, had been intercepted by the Army near the Hajibal forests close to the Line of Control. While one militant was killed in a firefight, the rest melted into the forests.

Maidanpora is known to be a “reception base” for infiltrators. Defence spokesman Lt Col J S Brar said the operation in Maidanpora had ended but searches were still on. “Two militants and two Army jawans were killed in the operation. Once the jawans come down to the units, we will have more details,” he said.

Something is not right. Something....

[shyamd]

Don't forget Holbrooke is in town today as well. Speculation that he is asking India to reduce troops on LoC. Some paki news outlets saying Indian army has cordoned off 60km of territory in Gurez sector.

J&K infiltrations are unusual: Chidambaram

Even as the Taliban threat looms large, an "unusual phenomenon" of terror groups including Lashker-e-Taiba and Jaishe-e-Mohammed making attempts to infiltrate their cadres has been observed along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir even before the snow has melted.

This was stated by Union Home Minister P Chidambaram in an interview to a private news channel during which he mentioned that since "Taliban is deep in Pakistan" it can be said they are closer to the country's border.

Asked about the infiltration in Kashmir Valley, the Home Minister said terror groups including Lashker, Jaish, Hizbul Mujahideen were now operating in tandem.

"Whether they were under the control of Taliban or any other state or non-state actor, I cannot say," the Home Minister said, adding that so far the security forces have been able to thwart the infiltration attempts.

Chidambaram, however, did not rule out links between jihadis and Taliban.

He also described as "an unusual phenomenon" the attempt to infiltrate even when the snows have not melted and termed it as "worrying".

He said the infiltrators will try to cause mayhem when politicians are moving during election time when they are more exposed. "We have specific intelligence that infiltrators will try to disrupt elections and cause violence."

[jamwal]

"Whether they were under the control of Taliban or any other state or non-state actor, I cannot say," the Home Minister said,

paki paki

[Nihat]

This is so incredibly frustrating , us losing SF men while making sure that Jehadis are not given too main pain in their last hours on earth , bring in the big boys in the form of Helicopter Gunships , Artillery , proper bullet proof equipment for the SF men.

Dying of plain bullet wounds is just humiliating for the GoI as basic bullet proof equipment will make sure it never happens. We have the fire power and we must use it to send a message .

Losing our men to these ******** is NOT an option.

[vsudhir]

Like in Mumbai, I hv no doubt these trained pigs also have come in with GPS and staellite phones to maintain regular contact with handlers across the border.

Also, the use of tunnels needs to be checked. I hope our own spy sats up above are doing the needful of keeping our SF teams reliably informed about the battlefield.

[satya]

Each story has two sides . Like earlier encounter where 17 + terrorists were killed , terrorist organizations tried to spin off that encounter as an intentional one where they actually attacked some IA camp in that particular region . Going with current news about 8 encounters , it can either mean :


these terrorists were caught again at LoC & encounter became localized near LoC itself . Good news is we again got almost pin-pointed intelligence . Bad news is TSPA is desperate & in sheer frustration or perhaps to increase the % of terrorists making it live across the LoC to major populated areas , they have increased the numbers per group infiltrating coupled with either failure of LoC counter infiltration strategy allowing such a large group to cross unchallenged and maybe undetected or perhaps IA's strategy to set the encounter on its own turf & terms thereby denying terrorists TSPA's fire support .

or

Its one of new brilliant operation planned at Pindi GHQ with large number of terrorists crossing LoC & holding the ground near LoC if so then TSPA will have to come in their support cuz logistics are finite & i don't understand the significance of this holding strategy unless TSPA come in their support ,if it comes then its a War by any name .

[shyamd]

Also, the use of tunnels needs to be checked. I hope our own spy sats up above are doing the needful of keeping our SF teams reliably informed about the battlefield.

This is actually a very important point. This is a big time problem for US and Israel. There isn't many things going to defend borders from tunnels. At the moment disruption is done by pure intel ops. However, I have posted in another thread before what the US is developing and has given to the Israeli's to help them detect tunnels. But I am not sure if they can be used on the LoC due to terrain. I am suprised it hasn't become a big issue(or there haven't been attempts to use it) on the LoC/IB.

If I was in Pindi HQ, I would be thinking along these lines.

[sum]

these terrorists were caught again at LoC & encounter became localized near LoC itself . Good news is we again got almost pin-pointed intelligence

I would think this is the case though the pigs are too well trained and armed (almost a non-commissioned Paki SF, one can say) and are giving it back to even Indian paratroopers(forget regular IA infantry)

[Dilbu]

Its one of new brilliant operation planned at Pindi GHQ with large number of terrorists crossing LoC & holding the ground near LoC if so then TSPA will have to come in their support cuz logistics are finite & i don't understand the significance of this holding strategy unless TSPA come in their support ,if it comes then its a War by any name .

If they can infiltrate a little bit in across the LOC and hold the ground, IA will be forced into a low intensity long drawn conflict because it is not allowed to use airpower within 10kms of LOC, IIRC. IA will have to do man to man fightinf if it does not want to escalate the situation.

[Sanjay M]

Perhaps we should fudge the definition of airpower, since Pak fudges the definition of ground conflict by using guerrillas.

The Americans are increasingly using aerostats and drones, and recently have even come up with balloons which act as gun platforms. They can float over areas for very long periods of time, and can even fire shots at ground targets with good accuracy.
Because of their long loiter times, they're very useful in low-intensity warfare.

[jamwal]

Army says not aware of Taliban presence in Valley

Srinagar, Apr 8: As the reports of Taliban militants entering Kashmir increased security concerns across the country, Army today said it was not aware of any presence of the hard line ultras in the Valley.

"We are not aware of any Taliban presence in Kashmir valley," Defence spokesman Lt Colonel J S Brar told EXCELSIOR.

Asked to comment on the recent media reports about a number of Taliban militants having sneaked into Kupwara district of North Kashmir, the spokesman said the veracity of the reports can be verified from the sources from whom the story has emanated.

"We have not said at any point of time that Taliban militants have entered into Kashmir. The story has come from Delhi and it can be confirmed or denied from there only," he added.


The sources said the infiltrators were highly motivated and trained carrying the latest weaponry and global positioning systems. "These militants are not the ones Army was used to confront during counter insurgency operations. But so far, all indicators point that they are mostly part of Lashkar, Jaish or Hizbul Mujahideen," they added.

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