Jammu and Kashmir Police said on Monday that biggest challenge for security forces in the union territory are going to be hybrid terrorists. Hybrid terrorists are those who are not listed with the security forces and are only brought in by terror groups just once or twice to carry out terrorist attacks.
In 2021, Kashmir valley saw dozens of attacks soft targets like civilians, policemen (on leave), political workers and people from minority communities. Jammu and Kashmir Police says that most of the attacks were carried out by hybrid terrorists. Security forces are now focussing on identification of such hybrid terrorists.
“There are two biggest challenges with regard to terrorism, the first one is hybrid terrorists. To identify hybrid terrorists, it a big challenge and to arrest them or stop them for doing any unlawful activities. If that’s not possible then neutralizing them in encounters will be a big challenge. Use of technical gadgets and cyber patrol are the two ways of knowing about hybrid terrorists,” said Vijay Kumar, Inspector General of Kashmir Police.
The other challenge that the security forces are facing in the Kashmir Valley is narco-terror. Tons of narcotics have been recovered by security forces in various districts of the Kashmir valley and security agencies believe that the money from these drugs is being used by the terror outfits. The arms and ammunition are mostly bought from money generated through drug trafficking. These drugs are sold in different parts of the country.
“The other challenge is Drugs. Students and civilians are involved in drug addiction and narcotics are coming from across the border. The narcotics are being sold and that money is given to terrorists and terror outfits. They buy arms and ammunition with that money and that’s a big challenge for us,” said Vijay Kumar, IG Kashmir Police.
Security forces have received intelligence input that terror handlers from across the border want to rebuild strength of terror outfits in Jammu and Kashmir. The terror outfits in the union territory have been dealt a blow due to sustained operations carried out by security forces. Many terrorists from top leadership of terror outfits have been eliminated.
The input further says that more than 300 trained terrorists of various terror outfits are waiting at launchpads across the border to infiltrate into Kashmir Valley mostly through Gurez and Kupwara sector in North Kashmir.