The Hindu : New strategy to tackle `fidayeen'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jul 25, 2003

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New strategy to tackle `fidayeen'

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI JULY 24. The Army has decided to adopt a two-pronged strategy to deal with the growing fidayeen (suicide) attacks on its locations in Jammu and Kashmir by relocating some Northern Command formations and relaunching with vigour counter-insurgency operations in Jammu and Udhampur regions.

It will also engage with the Defence Ministry to sort out some long-pending issues such as a review of the Northern Command set-up and speeding up acquisition of electronic surveillance devices and other equipment such as night-vision devices, new-generation carbines and light-weight assault rifles.

The operational strategy was reviewed at a high-level meeting chaired by the Chief of Army Staff, N.C. Vij, at the Army headquarters. Attended by operational and intelligence commanders, the meeting drew up plans to immediately relocate some Northern Command formations and establishments to make them less vulnerable to militant strikes.

The last camp to be attacked, for instance, housed a `low priority' vehicle repair unit and was located next to a thick jungle on a mountain road running parallel to the line of control (LoC). Camps such as these all over Jammu and Kashmir would be shifted to more secure locations. The meeting also decided to ensure that standard operating procedures (SOPs) were followed meticulously by all camps and units regardless of whether they comprised troops or supported formations such as engineers, signals and ordnance. These included clearing the vicinity of elephant grass, adherence by all units to light-weapon training schedules and strictly following all other procedures.

Sources said prima facie non-compliance with SOPs was responsible for the heavy toll in Tuesday's attack on the Army camp. Units that adhered to SOPs, such as the air force base at Avantipora in Srinagar, were more successful in repelling surprise attacks.

The launch of a fresh round of counter-insurgency operations and the relocation of vulnerable camps follows intelligence inputs suggesting stepped up attacks on the army's units in Jammu and Kashmir. Reports reaching the Army headquarters also spoke of stepped up infiltration, especially from the LoC in the Jammu region.

In fact, sources here said most of the 10 fidayeen attacks as well as other attacks on civilians and Armymen had occurred in Jammu, while the Valley is relatively quiet. This indicated that foreign militants who had crossed over from Pakistan were the main abettors of militancy rather than disaffected youth from the Kashmir Valley as was the case earlier.

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