Kashmir's most wanted terrorists will be hunted down soon, read why

NEW DELHI: The Army has released a 'hit-list' of top terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir. By making public names of 'high value targets' amid increased instances of attacks, the Army seems to have deployed a psychological tactic to isolate terrorists and weaken their stranglehold.

The terrorists named are local commanders of notorious groups operating in the state, like the Hizb-ul Mujahideen (HM) and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). One of the named is Abu Dujana, Lashkar's divisional commander in South Kashmir, who managed to escape the Army's dragnet several times and have been shielded by stone-pelters a few times.

The list contains names of topranking cadre of the Hizbul Mujahideen. After the death of former HM commander Burhan Wani, Zakir Rashid Bhat had taken over but HM distanced itself from its commander and a new face was found to lead the group. Sabzar Ahmed Bhat who was appointed commander was killed last week. Now Reyaz Naikoo, alias, Zubair, leads the group. All these, except Sabzar, pushed to the top through the HM ranks have been named in the hit list. The men in the list command close to 300 militants in small group.

"They are the ring leaders who control all other militants in Kashmir. Killing these leaders would lead to confusion and disarray among ranks. By cutting the head, the rest of the group could just fail to operate," an Army official explained.

The Army also aims to caution locals by releasing the list. Anyone found associated with them will naturally come under scrutiny. With this psychological warfare, the Army wants to diminish local support to terrorists. "These operations are meant to isolate these terrorists to such an extent that they are forced to make errors, which would lead to their arrest or elimination," said a counter-terrorist veteran.

Preparations
A road map will be created to form an understanding of their behaviour and connections and look for their weaknesses. Besides this, to zero in on targets, the Army has created dedicated teams earmarked for each. Ideally, these hit teams are made of 15 to 20 soldiers with at least 10 with fighting capabilities. The soldiers are from special forces, infantry, demolition engineers and intelligence corps specialists. The team may also be equipped with arms to cater to all possibilities.

The idea is to keep the team compact, functional and operations well-coordinated. The teams will have real time intelligence, adequate financial resources, freedom to operate in the area assigned and weapons of choice.