The army’s valley chief, Lieutenant General Rajiv Ghai, on Tuesday said there was still some distance to cover on the anti-militancy front in Kashmir, the remark coming close on the heels of lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha’s purported announcement of the launch of an all-out operation to wipe out militancy.

In an interview to RSS mouthpiece Organiser, Sinha was quoted as saying the government was starting a drive against militants soon.

The general officer commanding of the Srinagar-based 15 Corps, Ghai, on Tuesday said the situation was “generally good” in Kashmir but “there is still some distance to cover”.

“Kashmir is moving ahead and there are bright days and a very bright future ahead for the youth of the Valley,” he said.

Ghai was talking to reporters in Baramulla on the sidelines of the inaugural function of the General Bipin Rawat Sports Stadium.

Ghai said it was a very proud moment for the country and Jammu and Kashmir that a stadium had been named after General Rawat, who once commanded the 19 Infantry Division (in north Kashmir). General Rawat died in a helicopter crash in 2021.

Sinha was quoted as telling the Organiser there was a “silver lining in the security landscape as big terrorists have been successfully neutralised”.

“In the coming days, there will be Operation All Out,” he was quoted by the magazine as saying. “The strategic execution of this operation is anticipated to have a significant impact, demonstrating the authorities’ commitment to addressing security concerns and fostering a safer environment.”

Sinha said the targeted killings, particularly of employees coming from other states, seemed to be orchestrated to spark global discussions and convey a narrative that things were far from normal in Jammu and Kashmir.

He said regions such as Rajouri and Poonch had been specifically targeted.

The army had informally said it had launched “Operation All-Out” in the middle of 2017. There was massive politics in the state around it and the forces drew criticism from pro-India and pro-Azadi parties alike, particularly after dozens of civilians were killed near encounter sites.

The operation was never officially announced by the army and never officially concluded but top officers began using it frequently after some media reports quoting unnamed sources claimed in mid-2017 that such an operation had been launched to deal a crushing blow to militancy in the Valley.

The issue became so controversial that then governor Satya Pal Malik said no such operation was underway.

Six years after the purported operation, militancy remains strong here and the worrying fact is that it has spread afresh to Jammu’s Pir Panjal region from where it had been wiped out nearly two decades ago.

Dozens of security forces have been killed in Pir Panjal in the last couple of years.