Turn up the heat before the chill, Doval tells Forces in the Valley

Currently there are just a handful of commanders remaining in the Valley while the rest are foot soldiers.

Turn up the heat before the winter was a message that the National Security Advisor, Ajit Doval sent out to the security forces in the Kashmir Valley. With the successful killing of Waseem Shah of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba on Saturday, there are just a handful of commanders left in the Valley.

The Army prior to the launch of Operation Clean up or Operation All Out had prepared a kill list of 223. As of today 171 terrorists have been killed in encounters and what is significant is that most of them have been top commanders of outfits such as the Jaish-e-Mohammad, Hizbul Mujahideen and Lashkar-e-Tayiba.

Currently there are just a handful of commanders remaining in the Valley while the rest are foot soldiers. Doval feels that the Army and the police should focus on cleaning up the commanders as it leads to shaking up the unit. He also feels that all the commanders must be cleaned up before the winter sets in.
Once the winter sets in, the infiltrations stop. If the commanders are cleaned up by then, it would help in maintaining peace in Jammu and Kashmir he says.

Further, there is also a need to maintain a very strict vigil along the border areas since Pakistan would up the ante and try sending more terrorists before the winter sets in. If the commanders are targeted before the winter sets in, then terror groups would not be able to carry out attacks in the Valley as the numbers would have dwindled.

OneIndia News