Warning siren

It was a wake-up call in the Valley. The storming of the BSF residential colony at Bandipore by pro-Pakistan militants, believed to belon...

It was a wake-up call in the Valley. The storming of the BSF residential colony at Bandipore by pro-Pakistan militants, believed to belong to the Al-Badr group, signifies that although there may be a lull in fighting on the borders, the battle for securing the safety of the Valley continues.

It is indeed fortuitous that the sharpshooters of the elite National Security Guards could free the hostages and kill the three surviving militants in an efficient operation lasting less than three hours on Wednesday morning.

But coping with the expected rise in militant attacks by Pakistan-backed desperados would demand not just capabilities of rescue, but a greater degree of alertness on the part of the authorities in Jammu & Kashmir. After all, Bandipore was a chronicle of deaths foretold. Given the fact that the Indian Army had secured conclusive victories in Kargil, Drass and Batalik, given the diplomatic reverses that Pakistan had to suffer internationally, given the fact that the Pakistani prime minister’s callfor a cessation of hostilities caused widespread anger among militant groups, it was only a matter of time before there were increased attempts to terrorise the people in the state through subterfuge.

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Fighting this form of malevolence is even more difficult than fighting on the front. Here there are no demarcated battlelines or rules of conduct. The combatants don’t come dressed in battle fatigues, neither do they confine their attack to armed forces who can defend themselves. They thrive on quick, unexpected and deadly strikes, aimed most of all at driving fear into the hearts of ordinary people who just happen to be around.

At Bandipore, it was the wife of the constable who was the first victim of the terrorists’ gunfire and there were nine women and children among the 12 held hostage for 30 terrifying hours.

The Bandipore strike was the first of its kind in a long while, even in a state as exposed to terrorist activity as J&K. Never before have the militants been as brazen as to actually storm aheavily guarded residential colony for paramilitary personnel. Thus far their victims have been poor migrant labourers, members of rival gangs or people caught in the crossfire. This lends credence to the theory that militant groups will now resort to increasingly desperate measures in a bid to keep their cause alive and the state will from now on have to be on full alert to neutralise their nefarious agenda.

It was the alertness and quick action of a joint patrol of the Rashtriya Rifles and Special Operation Group on Tuesday night that had foiled the plans of another Pakistan-backed militant outfit, the Hizbul Mujahideen, to perpetrate terrorist strikes. When the soldiers were informed that four members of this outfit had taken shelter in Atoli village, Poonch district, they zeroed in on them and recovered large quantities of arms and ammunition in the process.

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The incidents at Bandipore and Atoli only mean that the current situation in J&K demands effective intelligence, efficient surveillance and animmediate response to terrorist attacks from the state’s military, paramilitary and political agencies.