Security forces need a free hand to decide on their course of action as the operational situation develops
Jaibans Singh
“While our aim has been to conduct people-friendly operations, the manner in which the local population is preventing us from conducting the operations, at times even supporting the terrorists to escape, it is these factors that are leading to higher casualties among the security forces. We would now request the local
population…local boys, if they want to continue with the acts of terrorism…… then we will treat them as anti-national elements and go helter-skelter for them… If they do not relent and create hurdles, then we will take tough action.”
No sane person in this world can find fault with the foregoing direct and forthright statement made by the Indian Army Chief, General Bipin Rawat, in the interest of his troops engaged in a deadly combat with foreign sponsored terrorists. By declaring his warning, the Army Chief is merely protecting his command from buying more than necessary casualties in the noble cause of protecting civilians from enemies of the nation. The Army could have carried out a tacit change in policy without divulging the same, but that would have been a dishonourable thing to do. The statement has no political connotations, veiled threat or self serving agenda hidden deep within.
The diatribe that the statement has elicited against security forces is a worrying indication of a proclivity within some elements of the political class, intelligentsia and the media to fatuously play around with national security. Shrill rhetoric is at its peak with absurd insinuations of the statement proving that Kashmir is a territory “occupied by a compassionless army” doing the rounds.
Others like the Congress party are calling for exercise of “restraint” by the security forces. This implies that the forces should simply stand by and get stone pelted. Surprisingly, one does not get to hear any missive to the so-called misled youth to exercise restraint in their nefarious activities that are causing harm to their people and more so to themselves. There seems to be no effort to develop in the young generation of the valley qualities of compassion, tolerance, achievement through hard work and patience which form the back bone of any progressive society. Instead, the youngsters are being fed a dose of supercilious cynicism whereby they see monsters everywhere.
Politicians of mainstream parties and their embedded “intellectuals” are quick to pontificate to the government and the security forces but one does not hear them motivating the older generation in Kashmir to ensure that their wards do not get ensnared by evil propaganda and indoctrination to choose the path of violence.
The time has come to catch the bull by the horns in Jammu and Kashmir so far as the security paradigm in the state is concerned. The existing policy needs to be replaced with one that is pragmatic, righteous and justified.
To do so it is important to understand the operational consequences of “restraint.” In the beginning of this millennium, the terrorist to security forces killing ratio stood at 10:1. In other words, for every 10 terrorists exterminated the security forces lost one brave soldier. Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh then gave a “missive of restraint” to the security forces as a part of his policy of zero tolerance to human rights violations. The anti-national forces were quick to understand and exploited the newly evolved situation to their advantage. Counter-terrorist operations started being hindered with stone pelting, crowd gathering and other forms of obstruction by locals at the behest of separatist and divisive forces. The end result is that operations that were earlier conducted with great care and deliberation in order to avoid casualties to own troops are being conducted in a hurried manner in order to culminate them before the process of obstruction by locals could be put into motion. A second reason for the casualties is that security forces have to avoid collateral damage even to property, and that results in conduct of room to room searches. The risk involved in such searches is colossal. Due to the foregoing factors, the casualty ratios now stand at a distressing level of almost 1:1, that is one security force personnel is losing life for one terrorist killed. This is simply not acceptable.
It is this malaise that the Army Chief is seeking to redress and in this he has the full support of the government and the people of the nation. Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar has made it very clear that the government stands by the army and the security forces. “In CICT (Counter Insurgency and Counter Terrorism) operations, government has given a total, free hand to the Army to crack down on terrorists. Anyone who obstructs is obviously trying to help terrorists,” he is reported to have said.
It is appreciated that counter terrorist operations should be conducted with due sensitivity and restraint is an integral part of this sensitivity. But sensitivity should not be allowed to be exploited in a manner that goes against the national interest. Security forces need a free hand to decide on their course of action as the operational situation develops.
(The writer is an author, columnist
and commentator)
