A crisis is brewing with regard to the deployment of the Army on anti-insurgency duties. A Hornets nest appears to have been stirred up in the relationship between Dr Abdullahs government and the Army. The controversy started after many leaders of the ruling National Conference (NC) approached the Chief Minister against the deployment of the Army in Dr Abdullahs Assembly Constituency Ganderbal. The general allegation has been that the army has no regard to the collateral damage to civilian life and property and that such an approach is resulting in alienation of the people from the ruling party. Some of the ruling party functionaries have been openly accusing the Army of timber smuggling and indulging in extortion in tandem with the Pro-government militants. The Chief Minister is believed to have communicated this to the higher-ups in the Army who immediately took the decision of withdrawing the Army from Ganderbal and adjoining areas. In what is being called here as the relocating of 70 Infantry Brigade, all the units doing anti-insurgency duties in Zakura, Harwan, Habbak, Pandach, ...Jadru, Alesteng and Dobipora have been withdrawn.
We have killed over thirty hardcore militants, most of them foreigners, in these areas. In the process we have also suffered a number of casualties. Our Brigade has the distinction of being awarded this years highest gallantry award in Peace times. The Ashok Chakra which was awarded posthumously to Second Lieutenant Puneet Datta who fought foreign militants in these very areas. And today we are told to leave our task unfinished. It has dangerous ramification.
There could be serious trouble in these strategically vital areas where militancy is gaining ascendancy once again, says a senior Army officer who would not like to be named. For us order are orders. We have pulled out in exactly forty eight hours from these areas, he added.
Now that the areas have been vacated by the Army, the same politicians, who made a case against the Army have been approaching the Chief Minister with requests that the survival of nationalist forces in Chief Ministers constituency is becoming difficult. Highly reliable sources here indicate that the State administration is trying its best to have the Army redeployed in and around Ganderbal. But, this time it looks that the Army might take its own time in reacting to yet another panic reaction of the State administration.
