Intelligence agencies have warned security forces operating in the Valley, particularly the Army, to be extremely careful about their informers or “source based information’’ as they could be deliberately misled with false inputs which may lead to a wrong operation like the one witnessed in the Bandipore area on Sunday in which two persons were killed.
It is largely believed that security forces were misled by informers into this particular operation which led to the killing of two innocents triggering huge protests in the Bandipore area. Now intelligence agencies have issued a fresh warning to sensitise security forces against such “false information”.
Both the Army and other paramilitary forces operating in Kashmir are said to be under tremendous pressure to neutralise the terror module responsible for the attack on an Army convoy in Bemina last week in which eight soldiers were killed. Hizbul Mujahideen had claimed responsibility for this incident on the outskirts of Srinagar said to be one of the worst attacks on security forces since militancy broke out in the Valley. Investigations into the incident have already confirmed that the terror module responsible for the killing had tremendous local support
Intelligence agencies have warned that the terror outfits will try and take advantage of the fact that security forces have launched a massive hunt to track the perpetrators of the Bemina killings and want them to commit more mistakes in the process. “What happened on Sunday in Bandipore was an error of judgment. There security forces were misled by an informer who claimed to have concrete information about those responsible for the Bemina incident. But it seems it was a trap. We need to be more careful in future operations,’’ a senior security official said.
Information available with Central intelligence agencies suggest that they have credible information that handlers of terrorist outfits sitting in Pakistan want to vitiate the atmosphere in the Valley by pitching the common public against the security forces. This, sources said, is a well planned strategy to the handlers in Pakistan to create further unrest in the Valley. Something similar to the massive civil disobedience movement witnessed in Kashmir in 2010.
“The handlers of these terror outfits sitting in PoK know that the number of militants in the Valley is dwindling fast. So they want to shift strategy by misleading security forces into operations against innocents and in turn instigate the common people. But we are aware of their devious plans,’’ the official added.