Last December involving over 600 soldiers and para commandos scanning the remote forests and villages of Haihama in north Kashmir for over a month was considered to be longest search operation launched by the security forces for the militants who were believed to have sneaked into the Valley in the first week of November, which also claimed the life of Commanding Officer of 41 Rashtriya Rifles Lt Col Santosh Mahadik on 17th November. Another senior officer, Lt Col Karan Bir Singh Natt, Second-in-Command of 160 Territorial Army, was injured in another shootout with the militants. And now the Pathankot encounter, which is over 50 hours looks to gain the title of the longest encounter in Punjab. Here also Lt Col Niranjan from NSG got killed when trying to defuse a live grenade from the body of a slain militant on 3rd January, 2016. The encounter is still on and speculations are that there are more militants holed up in the air base complex though six have been eliminated. What has, however, alarmed the security agencies is the renewed attempts made by Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) to regroup. Although the outfit’s presence remains abysmal, but if the recent incidents of violence are an indication, the spike signals a fresh push by the outfit to make a comeback. The outfit was on the verge of extinction in Kashmir in mid-2013 when two of its three last surviving commanders were killed in that year, leaving the outfit with a total cadre capacity of eight militants in Kashmir, the lowest since it was formed 13 years ago, according to the Jammu and Kashmir Police. The previous such operation in Jammu and Kashmir was way back in 2003, when over a period of a month, the army had killed more than 60 militants in Surankote area of Jammu. If a handful of militants can hold the security agencies for over 50 hours engaged in encounter it shows how well prepared are militants. Thanks to the security agencies whose timely action has saved major collateral damages at Pathankot. The encounter may be a psychological booster for ISI-backed militant groups, Indian security machinery has learnt some hard lessons which would go long way in the fight against Pak-supported militancy against India.
