Interview: Rising Militant Attacks In Jammu Should Bring About A Change In Strategy, Former DGP SP Vaid Tells ETV Bharat

In an exclusive interview with ETV Bharat, the former Jammu and Kashmir Director General of Police said that the rising militant attacks in Jammu region could be attributed to multiple reasons including the change by the deep state of Pakistan to mount an offensive against the security forces in the region and the changing dynamics post Article 370, reports ETV Bharat's Mohd Ashraf Ganie.

Jammu (Jammu and Kashmir): Amid the rising militant attacks in Jammu region of Jammu and Kashmir, former Director General of Police, Shesh Paul Ved has called for revisiting the strategy and strengthening of the human intelligence network in the region to deal with the renewed challenge.

In an Exclusive interview with ETV Bharat, Vaid denied claims that the rising militant attacks were due to a security lapse.

“We cannot say this is a security lapse that militants are active in Jammu Province but rather an underestimation of the situation in Jammu region especially post Article 370 abrogation and operation all out in the Kashmir valley where militants have not been able to carry out a big attack after Pulwama,” the former DGP said. He said that the “deep state of Pakistan has changed the strategy and terrorists operating in Jammu region have also come with a changed strategy”.

“Terrorists have changed their strategy and it is a fact that forces don’t get much information about them. They come and attack forces like what happens in mountain warfare and flee from the area without suffering any casualty in the retaliation,” he added.

Vaid also stressed on strengthening the human intelligence network in Jammu to deal with the challenge.

“No information comes from the public as they don’t give any chance to people to collect information about them but now we have to get human intelligence more seriously to stop infiltration and terror attacks (in Jammu region),” he added.

Vaid said that Pakistan was providing terrorists with modern weapons like the US made M4 carbine with night vision which works as a virtual sniper and Chinese armour-piercing bullets or steel-coated bullets.

Over the new strategy of the militants of hiding in forests by avoiding contact with the local population, Vaid said, “They are all from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa area of Pakistan which borders Afghanistan and they have a history of living in forests”.

The former DG said that the Pakistani deep state has “changed the strategy and sent the terrorists to Jammu region which has a vast area where even a battalion in one forest doesn’t count”.

“Firstly, there were security gaps after the forces were withdrawn from many areas of Jammu region and they were sent either to Ladakh or Kashmir and taking advantage of this terrorists attacked different areas of Jammu region. Secondly, their attacks are aimed at spreading forces as Jammu region has a vast area and is a mountainous one,” Vaid said .

He suggested the security forces and officers to remain vigilant and get more information about presence of militants and there network through human intelligence so that terrorism can be wiped out in Jammu and Kashmir.