At a time when the number of active militants in Kashmir has come down to less than 200 for the first time since the insurgency began in 1990, dealing with the 'hybrid' or 'part time' militants has emerged as a new challenge for the security agencies.
'Hybrid' militants are not listed as militants, but radicalised and trained enough to carry out terror attacks and then slip back into the routine life. As most of them are teenagers and highly motivated, they do not cross the border for arms training nor do they go underground to commit violent acts.
The word 'hybrid' first emerged after militants believed to be affiliated with The Resistance Front (TRF), an affiliate of Pakistan-based Lashker-e-Taiba (LeT), killed two non-Muslim teachers inside the premises of a government school in Srinagar on October 7.
Inspector General of police (IGP), Kashmir, Vijay Kumar acknowledges that for 2022, ‘hybrid’ militancy will remain as the biggest challenge for the police. “After examining various CCTV footages, it was observed that young boys aged 17 years carry out attacks on policemen and security forces. These boys aren’t categorised anywhere nor do we have their photographs in police stations,” he said while addressing a year-end presser.
“We have made a list of 25 hybrid militants who aren’t categorized,” the IGP said and added the second major challenge next year will be to prevent policemen from becoming soft targets.
“Terrorists attacked unarmed policemen and few were killed while coming out of masjids, some while going to markets and some while sleeping,” he said, adding curbing narco-terrorism will also be the top priority for the police in 2022.
Kumar termed the burial of hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani as major achievement of 2021. “There was no law and order incident and burial remained peaceful. So I count this as a major achievement for police in 2021,” he said.
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