Jammu, Dec 31: Director General of Police (DGP) Dilbag Singh on Saturday said that the day was not far off when the properties of Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin too would come under the purview of law like others of his ilk, as a part of unrelenting operations underway in J&K to annihilate terrorism and dismantle its ecosystem.
He said this in response to a query at his annual press conference here in the winter capital.
Responding to a related query as to whether any efforts were being made to bring Salahuddin back from Pakistan to bring him to justice for having killed so many innocent persons and also for being instrumental behind a trail of death and destruction in J&K through terrorist activities, J&K’s top cop said, “Yes, all terrorists are being brought to justice. They are being dealt with under the relevant provisions of the law. We will definitely follow the legal course to get him back.”
About the allegations PDP President Mehbooba Mufti levelled in a letter written to the Chief Justice of India (CJI) that anti-terror laws were being slapped against innocent persons ruthlessly and on flimsy grounds in J&K and the journalists were being harassed and not being allowed to leave the country, he said, “You see, that must be a personal perception. Every act of Police, including investigation and registration of cases, falls under the scrutiny of the courts. We are open to any kind of scrutiny (by courts) on this account, therefore (will make) no further comment in this regard.”
Sharing figures with regard to persistent operations being conducted to destroy the terror ecosystem, Singh said that 557 supporters of terrorism were dealt with under relevant provisions of law; 28 houses used for terrorist activities were seized and 649 people, who supported terrorism, were lodged under the Public Safety act (PSA).
The DGP, while sharing the statistics about the counter-terrorism operations in the year 2022, said, “This year has been much better than the previous couple of years. Efforts and work to create peace for the public increased this year.”
Corroborating it with a slew of statistics, he said, “In the last four years, 2022 was the best year as far as incidents (counter-terrorism operations) were concerned as 186 terrorists were killed. They included 56 foreign terrorists from Pakistan, associated with terror outfits of LeT and Jaish-e-Muhammad while 159 terrorists were caught alive. Among arms and ammunition, 275 pistols; 188 AK 47s; 354 grenades; 50 vehicles used for terrorist activities and 61 IEDs, including the ones supplied through drones from Pakistan were seized. The number of casualties in case of security forces and the civilians too was less.”
With regard to the recruitment of locals in terror outfits and the total number of terrorists presently active in J&K, the top cop said that the number of local and foreign terrorists existing was just slightly more than 100 – the lowest ever in the past few years.
“They too will soon be eliminated,” he said.
He said that it was heartening to note that even the number of locals joining terror outfits too was the lowest ever this year.
“The number of local terrorist recruitment was just 100 and that too happened as the gullible youth are trapped in the conspiracies of Pakistan which focuses on radicalising young boys. Out of 100, presently only 18 are active. Rest of them have either been eliminated or arrested. Of this, a total of 17 terrorists were arrested. So a majority of them have been eliminated. Thus on the whole, we have been ushering in the New Year with a resolve of ‘mission zero terror,’” the DGP said.
“The youngsters, who get radicalised, are being prevented from going astray. Though we don’t share figures on that yet it (the effort in this connection) has been a huge success,” he said.
The DGP said that ‘The Resistance Front’ (TRF), an off-shoot of Lashkar and Jaish, was being used by Pakistan and was operated from there (by handlers) to carry out terrorist activities in J&K as “terror modules” – which were a facade (created by Pakistan) to give it (terrorism) a local projection.
“Generally we are asked a question if we have successfully eliminated the majority of terrorists and dismantled terror outfits and their support system then how the terror incidents are taking place. So on this account, Pakistan is using terror modules under the facade of TRF, which is just a mouthpiece for local projections. Such 146 terror modules have been destroyed this year and all out efforts are being made to dismantle TRF completely by the Police, security forces and other agencies in perfect synergy. There should be no doubt that TRF is being operated from Pakistan,” Singh said.
Regarding J&K’s fight against narco-terrorism, the DGP said, “A total of 1693 drug related cases have been registered this year, recording an increase of 130 cases since last year. A lot of people have been arrested besides consignments of 212 kg heroin; 12 kg brown sugar; over 10,000 kg poppy were seized and 176 people were lodged under the PSA.”