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Mumbai In The Hills: Encounter With
Militants Enters Day 8
WSN Network
 RAJORI:
Within days of exposing
India's utter
inability in tackling a terror strike by a group of armed men in an
urban setting, a highly motivated group of kashmiri militants now
seems to have succeeded in bogging down the armed forces in a hilly
setting. A group of militants, whose numbers are not very clear, has
been engaging the armed forces in a long winded encounter that has
already entered Day 8 as this WSN edition went to the press with the
army saying it was now proceeding cautiously and wanted to avoid
further loss of troops.
Bhatti Dhar has
been hearing the gun shots for more than a week now.
It seems the
militants are trapped but they surely are well entrenched — in
bunkers, concrete and carved out of caves. Joint teams of Special
Operation Group (SOG) of state police and Romeo Force of Indian Army
have cordoned off the area and short spells of firing continued in
the daytime but the militants fired heavily on Sunday night and
attempted to break the cordon of security forces.
possibly, a
dozen plus militants have been able to engage the forces and now
para-military commandos have reached Batidhar area to sneak inside
the forest area.
One version is
that there were no fortified structures or bunkers in the area but
the topography and terrain had possibly provided cover. Coupled with
the heavy fog and intimate knowledge of the area, the militants are
holding out.
People from the
adjoining villages have been refraining from venturing anywhere
near. So far, four militants have been killed in the encounter but
no bodies could be recovered. One SPO, Naresh Kumar, and an Army
jawan, Naik R K Singh, have also been killed while a Junior
Commissioned Officer, Rakesh Kumar, is declared missing.
The encounter
had started on Thursday when the Army laid siege to Batidhar forest
following information about the presence of LeT and JeM militants.
In 2003, a
similar situation was witnessed when permanent bunkers in Hill Kaka
region in border district of Poonch by terrorists became a major
security concern. Later, the Army had killed over 60 terrorists,
uncovered several bunkers and seized huge stocks of arms, ammunition
and medicines in a phased operation. The Army used para-commandos
and helicopter services to break the bunkers under operation Sarp
Vinash, the code name also exposing a bit of Indian army's mental
make up.
Army officials
said they were avoiding a final assault because they feared huge
causalities in that case. Even Chief of the Indian Army General
Deepak Kapoor has said the operation is taking time as the Army
wanted to minimise its own casualties.
“The operation
is very much on. We are trying to ensure that we do not suffer any
casualty. We are hopeful that we will be able to get most of the
terrorists,” Kapoor said at a function in Delhi.
7 January 2009
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