The Indian army has conducted its biggest counter-militancy operation to date along one of the most unforgiving Himalayan ranges in Kashmir, the "shock and awe" campaign killing 62 Islamic militants within a month. In the operation, codenamed "Sarp Vinash" (Annihilation of Snakes), the Indian army's top counter-insurgency commandos climbed rugged mountain peaks — "sometimes on all fours" — travelled for days into dense forests and fought "pitched battles at close contact". During the drive that began on the night of April 21-22, 94 militant hideouts were smashed, including concrete bunkers and an underground tunnel in which 30-40 militants could easily live. "Some of these hideouts even had facilities to conduct surgical operations on wounded militants," said Major-General Hardev Singh Lidder, regional commanding officer of the "Romeo Force" of Rashtriya (National) Rifles, India's frontal counter-insurgency unit. "If this campaign had not been undertaken, the summer would most definitely have been a bloody one."
| I suspect it still will be, just not as bloody as it would have been... |
Huge amounts of arms and ammunition — grenade launchers, rifles, pistols, grenades, 100 kilograms (220 pounds) of explosives, booklets on "how to make poison", "a car bomb" and anti-personnel mines were recovered from the blown up bunkers, that had separate kitchens and latrines, Lidder said. Nearly 7,000 kilograms (15,000 pounds) of food supplies and soft drinks were found alongside medicines, glucose bottles, injections, mobile and satellite phones, dictaphones, blankets, copies of the Koran, diaries and family pictures. Calls from the phones have been traced to almost all major Indian cities including the western commercial hub of Bombay and riot-hit Gujarat city of Ahmmedabad, Lidder said. Some numbers have also been traced to Kuwait.
| That's pretty interesting. Wonder who owns the numbers? |
"Six major terrrorist groups including Lashkar-e-Taiba, Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, al-Badr, had their cadres living here," he said. "In fact, there was coordination between them too. They used to meet at one hideout in the deep forests and discussed plans."
| Why shouldn't they? They're really only divisions of one organization... |
Lidder said the operation was planned in January when a surrendered militant disclosed that "300 to 350 terrorists" were living in bunkers in the inhospitable Pir Panjal and Hill Kaka areas of Surnakote, near the Line of Control. "We began the planning process and before the first strike, we had built helipads all around the area of operation which is like a bowl. We moved in supplies and built mule tracks. On the night of April 21-22, we began moving in," he said. "The terrain is so rugged that it takes 10 hours to reach the centre of the area from the outskirts and sometimes the climb was done on all fours. At around 5-5:30 am on April 22, we made first contact with a group of terrorists and gunned down 13. It was shock and awe. They just didn't know what struck them."
| That's because they thought they were safe. |
A sustained day and night campaign had begun, sometimes even using helicopter gunships to bust bunkers on mountain tops, the officer said, adding that about 80 percent of the "terrorists" killed were Pakistanis. According to Lidder, while 62 were killed — their bodies buried by police — three were captured of whom two are "young boys of 11 and 13 years who were forced to join the groups but have now been returned to their parents."
| They'd be used as houseboys, I guess. And playthings. |
These militants had been using the complex terrain of the region as safe hideouts to carry out guerrilla warfare for two to three years, Lidder said. "With the busting of the hideouts, he (the militant) is now on the run. He is running from boulder to boulder and we are chasing him. This operation will not end till we find the remaining terrorists. They have gone into the forests and we have gone after them," Lidder said. "If he lives to die another day, we are also not going anywhere from here."
| That's the tough part about rugged, inhospitable terrain: it's rugged and inhospitable to both sides. Once you're tossed out of your hole in the wall, you've got to fend for yourself, and jihad becomes less important than catching something for breakfast. |
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