Srinagar, Jun 19: Operations against militants in Jammu and Kashmir would be intensified in the days to come as extremist activities increased during Ramazan when counter-militancy operations were stopped, state police chief S P Vaid said today.
“Operations will continue. Only thing was in between, during this (ceasefire) period, the operations were stopped. They were going on earlier also, but we will intensify these operations in the days to come. And it would be, I think, much easier to work,” he said here when asked if Governor’s rule would make any difference to the security apparatus of the state in counter-militancy operations.
Vaid said the militant activities increased during the period of Ramazan ceasefire.
“But, we will go all-out and intensify the operations against the terrorists now,” he said.
The DGP said he was sure the Governor’s rule would have an impact on the security situation of the valley and “things should work very effectively”.
“I am sure things should work very effectively and it will have an impact on the security situation of the valley,” he said.
He said there was an impact on the fight against militancy because of the ceasefire as it was advantageous to the militants.
“The orders were to maintain high-alert in the camps so that if camps were attacked, we are able to retaliate effectively. But, one could not launch operations even when there was specific intelligence about the presence of terrorists. So, that obviously was an advantageous to the terrorists,” he said.
Asked whether the ceasefire provided an opportunity to the militants to regroup and if the fight against them would be any difficult, Vaid said, “I think in terms of organising, they had an advantage during this period … This job was never easy, it is always difficult and shall continue to be so.”
On the investigations into the killing of veteran journalist Shujaat Bukhari, the DGP said the police would be able to crack the case within a limited period of time.
“We had constituted a SIT. DIG central Kashmir is personally monitoring the case. In fact zonal IG Kashmir himself is taking updates on day-to-day basis and there are important leads in the case which I would not like to comment on at the moment because it is too premature to talk about those developments… Absolutely, within a limited period of time, we will be able to work-out the case,” he said.
Similarly, he said, the militants behind the killing of army soldier Aurangzeb will be brought to book soon.
“We know those terrorists and we are after them and we will very soon get them. We are after their lives,” the DGP said.
