From Looting Weapons To Attacking Forces With Grenades, The Situation In The Valley Is Getting Worse

With mob storming police stations and taking away semi-automatic assault rifles, and terrorists attacking the security forces with grenades while hiding behind Kashmiri youth, the situation in valley is getting worse.

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According to sources, several incidents have occurred in valley where weapons have been looted from the security forces, be it the police, CRPF or even the army.

On Monday a mob stormed a Police station in Damhal Hanji Pora in Kulgam, took away 70 semi-automatic assault rifles and later torched the place. In two other incidents on Tuesday, two separate attempts were made to snatch weapons from the troops. In Tral, a group attacked four constables at a police post in the morning and tried to take their weapons. The policemen managed to save their rifles but protesters fled with the magazines. 

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While later in the evening, a police station was attacked in Karalpura with a possible objective to loot the armoury. But the joint effort of CRPF and Police thwarted the attempted of the mob and saved the armoury.

"The jawans fought despite being hit on the head with rods and stones and didn't let the protesters take the rifles," said a CRPF official while applauding jawans who were taking a civilian to hospital who had a heart condition. In key areas of valley such as Anantnag, Shopian, Kulgam and Pulwama districts in south Kashmir and Baramulla, Sopore, Kupwara, Ganderbal and Bandipora towns, there have been sporadic attacks on the police and paramilitary and the forces are having a tough time in repulsing these attacks.

The security experts believe that snatching the weapons from security forces by local youth is a strategy of separatists to raise an arsenal for terrorists who aren't getting enough weapons from across the border since the patrolling on border and LOC has been quite strict. 

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Experts also say that this trend is not new and a decade ago, the snatched weapons would end up in the hands of local militants and were being used against the forces. This further compounds the threat forces face from heavily-armed Pakistani terrorists belonging to Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad sent by ISI to the valley. 

Another worry, apart from snatching of weapons is the lobbing of grenades on security forces by terrorists hiding behind the stone peltors. According to intelligence sources, during the protests over the past few days in J&K, it has come to light that terrorists were using stone-pelting youth as shelter to attack forces with grenades.

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"Deaths of young men have a spiralling effect, leading to further protests against use of force and giving terrorists a reason to fan popular sentiment against the security forces in J&K," said an intelligence officer. Another new trend visible to the security establishment is that while towns are relatively quiet, outlying areas have become the new terror hotbeds. This is where more terrorists are hiding and being engaged in encounters by counter-terror forces, the officer said.

Security forces also know the mass killing to quell the protest isn't an option and it would further add fuel to the fire. "The belligerence of protesters is a bigger problem than their numbers. It has been noticed while the strength of the protesting mobs may not be huge, they are more belligerent in engaging the security forces in a confrontation," a top officer of the security establishment said.

The officer also pointed to recent incidents of violent mobs setting fire to police stations and CRPF pickets and even pushing a policeman along with his vehicle into the Jhelum river. 

"This shows that if there are indeed 'outsider' elements instigating the mobs, they have succeeded in convincing the protesters to be more belligerent and destructive," said the officer.

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The violence that followed Wani's encounter has given the terrorists who had surrendered before to take up arms once again. "Around 5-8 surrendered terrorists are said to have turned around in the recent past and rejoined terror ranks," said an officer.

Incidentally, Hizbul terrorist Sartaj Ahmed Sheikh, killed along with Wani in the Kokernag encounter on Friday, was also one of a 'recycled' terrorists. He was arrested and released as part of a surrender scheme but is believed to have rejoined Hizbul ranks in 2014.