Another Double Century for the Indian Army

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Double Century for the Indian Army

The Indian Army has been on the offensive killing 28 terrorists in the last 9 days of November. In 2016, 213 terrorists were killed which dealt a severe blow to the nefarious designs of Pakistan. The army has been proactively hunting down terrorists through ‘Cordon and Search Operations’ (CASO) and ‘Search and Destroy Operations’ (SADO). The forces’ performance in eliminating Pakistan-sponsored terrorists this year has been better than 2016; 227 terrorists have been killed with an entire month to go.

In November, 37 terrorists were gunned down with 12 killed in just two days on November 23 and 24. The most important aspect of the offensive launched by the forces last month is that of the 37 terrorists killed 9 were commanders.

South Kashmir is a hotbed of terrorism. Twenty-eight terrorists were eliminated in this region in November. Shopian, which has been in news for terrorism for long also saw heavy activity as 13 terrorists were killed in the district.

An argument made to undermine the success of our forces and the government in taking terrorism head-on is that killing more terrorists won’t make a big difference because Pakistan will simply send more as there is no dearth of brainwashed youth who believe getting killed fighting the Indian state will give them an entrance to heaven. But this is a flawed argument. Here’s why:

1. Success of terrorist organisations depends on the training they give to recruits. They have to effectively train new members for many months if they wish to be successful in their activities. By eliminating over 200 terrorists in a year, the Indian Army is ensuring that new recruits aren’t getting training time. To maintain pressure on our forces, terrorist outfits simply have to keep pushing men into our land. As these men are ill-trained, they most often end up being sitting ducks against our able and experienced soldiers.

2. Relentless operations by the forces to eliminate terrorists creates a fear in the youth who are attracted toward picking up arms against the state. This results in lower recruitment for terrorist outfits. The Director General of Police Dilbag Singh said that in the last two months (October and November) not one local youth in the Valley joined a terrorist organisation.

3. In November itself, 9 commanders were killed in encounters. It is obvious that it must’ve taken years for these terrorists to have become commanders. When so many commanders are eliminated in short periods of time then it creates a massive vacuum in the leadership of terror outfits. It takes years for such a vacuum to be effectively filled leaving terror outfits at a serious disadvantage.

4. More the number of terrorists eliminated at the border lesser will be able to infiltrate into our cities. This makes our cities much safer. This is something that we’ve seen in the last 4 years. Not one terrorist attack has taken place in a busy public place in a major city since 2014 which shows that the forces and government have been incredibly successful in restricting terrorism to Kashmir.

Another important aspect that’s not highlighted is the number of terrorists killed for every soldier that we lose. In 2013, this ‘soldier: terrorist’ ratio was 1.26, meaning for every soldier martyred the army killed 1.26 terrorists. This was nearly a one for one ratio. In 2017, the same was 2.66 meaning that the army killed 2.66 terrorists for every soldier who lost his life in the line of duty. This figure signifies that:

1. the Indian Army has gained a significant upper hand in the last few years
2. the forces are proactive as they’re hunting terrorists instead of waiting for them to strike
3. the government has given freedom to the forces to act as they deem fit

Other than the increased dominance of our forces both on the border and within the state, clampdown on funding of separatists has also reduced terrorist influence. In the coming years, terrorism will lose footing further in the Valley, and if our internal decision-making and international policy remains on the right path then we may soon have a situation where terrorism loses its relevance and doesn’t remain the threat that it is today.