Indian security forces have neutralized 167 terrorists so
far this year-highest in years. In fact an average of one terrorist has been
killed since May this year. As Indians we are indeed proud of this achievement -
barring the ‘Azaadi brigade’ of course. But going beyond the nationalistic zeal,
it is by all means a commendable achievement by a very professional and
competent force. The game between terrorists/extremists and security forces is a
very tricky one. On one hand the forces
seem to have a numeric advantage. But terrorists can mix up with the local
populace (and not just in J&K but even elsewhere) making it difficult to
track them. To further complicate, the forces have hundreds of installations to
protect whereas the terrorists just need to strike one to prove a point. This
is just a glimpse of how heavily skewed the game is in favor of the
terrorists/ultras. Local support makes it much more complicated.
Since Dec
2014, India has adopted a ‘two for a bullet’ approach vis-à-vis Pakistan. Every
LOC violation has met a heavy response from India. But that did not deter the
enemy enough. They responded with Pathankot and later Uri. The Surgical strikes were successful and very
much required to boost morale of the forces, besides delivering a strong
message to Pakistan. But frankly speaking such strikes are high on rhetoric but
low on value. In other words, you cannot expect the Para Commandos to launch
such strikes every now and then to eliminate 25-50 militants. The political and
diplomatic cost of failure is too high. Indian establishment understood this
too well and seem to have reworked their approach. The results are for everybody
to see. In the past, we have seen missions and operations to neutralize
specific terrorists. But this is the first time since the 90s that such a
prolonged operation has been taken up which has almost wiped up the entire
leadership. The Intelligence gathering and coordination between various
agencies is simply amazing! It almost looks like a video game! A new one comes
up and there you go-BOOM !
This government
is known for using facades to hide their real act/motives. We particularly
witnessed this after the Uri attacks when the Government keep everybody busy
thinking there would be a diplomatic response like reviewing the Indus Water treaty,
while they actually launched the surgical strikes. Well- Now it looks like the surgical strikes
actually were a façade! They helped calm the initial domestic discontent giving
the forces time to actually plan and carry out their mission! So the response
to Uri and Pathankot is not the surgical strikes, but what’s been going on for
past six months! And if the success rate is any indicator, this is just the beginning!
To an extent that the IG of Kashmir openly jokes that nobody is now ready to
take up the mantle of LET!!.
So what
does it all mean? Will this bring peace? No. Will it reduce terrorist attacks? Probably
not in a long term. Will it solve the Kashmir problem? Of course not! But then it
was never about peace or freedom in the first place. One would have been stupid
enough to expect ‘freedom’ for Kashmir with such terrorist attacks just as it is
stupid to expect peace with elimination of terrorists. It’s a game the sleuths play
to establish superiority. This game can
only be finished on the negotiating table with the political leadership
involved.
Till that happens? The
game’s on!!
