Director General of Police (DGP) Dilbag Singh said on Tuesday that the Kokernag (encounter) was a successful operation despite the deaths of several security personnel, adding that it had no effect on the tranquilly in the Kashmir valley.
He was speaking to reporters after he had just dedicated the brand-new (modular) Katra Police Station. The DGP was joined by top officials, including the ADGP for the Jammu zone, Mukesh Singh.
It was calm before the confrontation with Kokernag, and it is calm now. DGP Dilbag Singh remarked, “People nurse misconceptions and misconstrue a single incident as a stormy (turbulent) situation,” in response to concerns that the Kokernag encounter was an indication of a worsening security situation in the Valley.
We are aware of what their followers (the terrorists) are up to. We go after them into dangerous terrain, like dense woods or high mountains. Kokernag was another one of these operations, one that was carried out based on precise information about a terrorist hiding out in that area. On other occasions, however, when the (hidden) adversary is waiting and ready to target and this side (the troops) is unfamiliar with the terrain, it turns out to be unpleasant. Whoever ignites the fire first is going to have an enormous advantage. The chief officer in J&K warned that the troops would have to take the hit if the terrorist started shooting first, but that they would be able to eliminate the threat if they opened fire first.
He said that it was just bad luck that one of their brave officers, or jawans, had to be the one to fire first during the Kokernag incident. As a result, a salvo of gunfire claimed the lives of four of our gallant officers: a colonel, a major, a deputy superintendent of police (DySP), and a jawan named Pradeep. They died a heroic death in the operation.
The DGP said it was no small thing that brave officers and jawans, knowing full well the danger zone they were entering with the sole objective of chasing and eliminating the terrorist, put their duty ahead of their own safety and sacrificed themselves to help eradicate terrorism and the terrorists.
I pay my respects to the officers and soldiers who gave their lives in this operation and to those who kept going until they killed the dangerous terrorist Uzair Khan, who had been active in the region for some time. To me, this seems like a job well done. Regarding the losses we incurred, the (occasional) likelihood of such losses in operations of this kind remains. We mourn our losses, but at the same time, we are proud of them, who led the operation,” he said.
Responding to another query, DGP Dilbag Singh said that full-throttle efforts were being made to completely eliminate terrorism, even in its residual form in J&K.
“Similarly, operations against narco-smugglers have been intensified three times to completely root out narco-terrorism, fuelled by Pakistan and its agencies. This can be well-judged from the significant increase in registration of cases, arrests (of narco-smugglers), and busting of modules (of narco-terrorism),” he said.
Singh said that the efforts to revive terrorism in Rajouri-Poonch and Reasi were thwarted by successful back-to-back operations in the recent past, neutralising even those who had entered this side.
Katra Police Station was replaced with a modular building because the previous structure was in disrepair and lacked the resources necessary to handle the influx of tourists and pilgrims visiting the holy site of Mata Vaishno Devi.
