Jammu and Kashmir’s director-general of police Rashmi Ranjan Swain has set a daunting target of wiping out militancy in Jammu in two-three months, echoing a similar pledge by Union home minister Amit Shah last year.
In January last year, soon after militants killed seven Hindu residents and injured several more, Shah had told a news conference that a “complete 360-degree security grid” would be formed in three months to secure Jammu.
The region not only witnessed multiple militant attacks in the last 18 months but also saw it spreading to newer districts such as Reasi, Kathau and Doda.
Swain, showcasing a new hard line, vowed to use tougher laws against militant supporters. “You know, in 1995 to 2005-07, they tried and hatched a conspiracy but didn’t succeed. We took some losses (then), but who won finally? Now they (militants) have come with this fight. We should show courage and we are doing that. We are trying, after taking minimum losses, we will destroy them in two to three months,” he told a news conference on Sunday evening.
Swain has in recent days called the insurgency a “war” imposed by the enemy (Pakistan) and admitted they faced a security challenge.
The DGP’s new pledge aims at rebuffing allegations that militancy was showing no signs of abating in Jammu.
Parts of Jammu had witnessed a massive surge in militancy in the decade up to the mid-2000s. However, security forces, with the help of locals, had largely succeeded in restoring calm before developments in 2019 saw the region re-emerging as a hub.
“I have always said this fight will be won with the help of people. It will be won with the group of VDGs (village defence guards), SPOs (special police officers) and local police supported by our central armed forces,” he said.
Four back-to-back militant attacks in Jammu recently killed nine Shiv Khori pilgrims and a CRPF jawan and left several injured.
The DGP said the police proposed to invoke the Enemy Agents Act/Ordinance (EAA/O), which he said was a harsher law than the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), to target militant supporters. He said the minimum punishment in EAA/O was life imprisonment and maximum death penalty.
“I have spoken to a senior law officer of the police department on whether the Enemy Agents Ordinance Act can be invoked, especially against those who aid and abet Pakistani terrorists. They will be treated as enemy agents…. This Act, introduced to counter Pakistani raiders or invaders in 1948, is much harsher than UAPA,” the DGP said.
He said the EAA/O was targeted at foreigners, especially Pakistani invaders or raiders, when they come to strike with an aim to disturb and destabilise the government elected by law and spread their ideology.
“The fighters (terrorists), however, don’t fall in the category of investigations. They have to face kinetic action (killed) but those who support the foreign terrorists have to be treated as enemy agents,” he said.
