Ongoing operation in the forests of the district in which three terrorists, one of them a foreigner, have been neutralised so far, arrest of half-a-dozen overground workers and recovery of good quantity of arms and ammunition indicate that Bandipora is once again becoming a favourite place for not only local but Pakistani terrorists as well.
In the ongoing joint operation of the security forces, Marcos has been pressed into service because the operation is taking place in the dense forests of Shokbaba Sumlar-Aragam area. One Army soldier has been injured in the operation so far and has been hospitalised. The operation was started Sunday morning following specific inputs about the presence of a freshly infiltrated group of terrorists from Pakistan. During the heavy exchange of fire 3 terrorists were gunned down. While one of them is said to be a Pakistani, another has been identified as Saqib. According to sources, Saqib has crossed over to Pakistan via Wagah border in 2018 on valid travel documents and crossed back as a Pakistan-trained terrorist.
Bandipora has been a hotbed of Pakistani terrorists in last decade. Heavily armed Pakistani terrorists were provided logistic support by the local cadres of Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad. These groups unleashed a reign of terror in the district by attacking the security forces and killing civilians who were suspected of working as informers for security forces.
When in June 2011, the then Chief Minister Omar Abdullah toured the area, it made a headline in the local as well as national newspapers because no politician dared to roam around freely for the fear of getting targeted by the terrorists. It was after 15 years that a Chief Minister had dared to visit the area.
On 5 June 2017, a major suicide attack was foiled when a group of 4 terrorists tried to sneak into a CRPF camp in Sumbal area of Bandipora. All of them were killed before they could enter the premises.
In the same year on 27 September, a BSF constable Mohammad Ramzan who was on leave was showered with bullets inside his home in Sumbal area, resulting in his on-the-spot death. This triggered massive counter insurgency operations in the area resulting in wiping out of most of terrorists. In these operations many commandos also lost their lives.
In a major operation in November 2017, Mumbai attack mastermind Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi’s nephew was among the six Pakistani terrorists killed in Bandipora district. In this operation, an IAF Garud commando was also killed. Apart from Lakhvi’s nephew, two Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) commanders were also killed by the security forces. The encounter took place when security forces launched a search operation in Chandergeer village in Hajin area of the district after receiving specific intelligence input about the presence of terrorists in the area. All the six terrorists killed in the encounter were Pakistanis. One of the terrorists named Owaid was the son of Zakir Rehman Maki and the nephew of Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi.
But after this there was a calm in the district for a long time to come which was broken on July 9 last year when three members of a family, all linked to the BJP, were killed in a terrorist attack. The dead included a member of the BJP state executive committee, Sheikh Waseem Bari, 27, and his father Sheikh Bashir Ahmad and brother Sheikh Umar, who were also office-bearers of the party. The attack happened right outside the Bandipore Police Station, when the three were at the family shop, run out of their home.
This incident not only shook the security set up but also forced a review of the entire deployment and anti-insurgency grid of the district forcing important changes wherever required.
Security experts believe that of late terrorists are trying to strengthen their foothold in Bandipora district because of its strategic location. “Bandipora works as a transit camp for freshly infiltrated groups of terrorists because from here they can fan out to many districts of Kashmir. Also, forest cover of the district is a safe haven for these groups,” said a senior police officer on condition of anonymity.
In the recent weeks, at least two Lashkar modules have been busted by the police in Bandipora. One such group was given small arms to target security forces and local politicians. They were promised AK 47 rifles as rewards by their Pakistan handlers if they strike big. But they were rounded up before they could do so.