On Sunday, three Jaish-e-Mohammad [JeM] terrorists were killed by a combined team of the Indian army, Central Reserve Police Force and J&K police. Amongst the dead was a Pakistani national and self-styled JeM ‘commander’ named Saifullah.

A mention of how this JeM ‘commander’ had carried out a number of attacks on security forces, and using the ‘hit and run’ strategy, successfully evaded the ‘end game’ by breaking out of the security forces’ dragnet 20 times, reminds one of the famous ‘you can run but you can’t hide’ quip inspired by America’s legendary longest reigning heavyweight champion in boxing history Joe Louis’ similar remark.
In 1941, on being unable to gain weight necessary to enter the heavy weight category, the light-heavyweight boxing champion Billy Conn who was to fight Louis bragged that he would still win by using the ‘hit and run’ technique. This prompted Louis to remark “He can run but he can’t hide,” and his prediction proved right when he knocked out Conn in the 13th round.
This is exactly what happened in the Chatroo area of Kishtwar eight-and-a-half decades later.
Just like Conn, Saifullah too might have thought that he could survive using the hit and run strategy, and after having escaped security forces’ dragnet 20 times, it may have given him a sense of invincibility. This coupled with the craving for publicity made him use social media to post his photos brandishing weapons as well as a gory video showing him mutilating the dead bodies of army personnel killed in an ambush and decapitating them.
But in the end, the Indian security forces did a ‘Joe Louis’ on Saifullah by ensuring that while he may have been able to run, he ultimately couldn’t hide!
With Sunday’s killings, Saifullah’s group which was active in Kishtwar area for the last four years has been completely annihilated marking cessation of the 36-day-long Operation Trashi-I conducted in the inhospitable and treacherous upper reaches of the Chatroo region of Kishtwar district in J&K for this purpose.
Those who have operated here or under similar areas elsewhere will recall the immense physical, mental and psychological strain caused by the cumulative effect of high altitude, extremely cold temperatures, thick vegetation and natural folds in the ground that provides terrorists with significant advantage. In such areas, while movement can be detected from far away, a person who is stationary and has concealed himself can escape detection from even as close as 10 to 15 meters.
The author is reminded of an incident in the wooded mountains of Lolab in North Kashmir during the mid-nineties while serving with Rashtriya Rifles. After a gruelling eight hours night ascent our party reached the mountain top where it was believed that a terrorist hideout was located. At day break we ‘married up’ [a term used in the army to denote physical contact with] with an officer-led team of the Special Forces [SF] who had taken a different route for maintaining the element of surprise.
The site was searched thoroughly and as nothing unusual was found, sentries were posted and we settled down for a well earned rest while tea was being brewed. The SF officer said he would like to use this opportunity to select some suitable sites as bases/observation posts for any future operations in this area, and took his buddy with him for reconnaissance.
About fifteen minutes later, the silence was suddenly shattered by the sound of a long staccato of AK rifle fire. As the sound of the gunfire seemed to be coming from directly below us, we spread out and started descending cautiously. As there was a sheer precipice below, the sound of gunfire coming from there seemed odd. Luckily, the SF officer called on his radio set to say that during his reconnaissance, he had bumped into a natural cave that terrorists were using as a hideout.
An exchange of fire ensued and two foreign terrorists were neutralised without any casualties on our side. It later emerged that while we were brewing tea on the mountain top, a mere 10 meters below us, a terrorist was sitting at the mouth of the cave-hideout busy cooking an egg. A massive boulder concealed the cave from direct observation while the precipice gave an erroneous impression of being unsuitable for establishing a hideout.
The aim of recounting this incident is just to give an example of how difficult spotting a person in thickly wooded mountainous terrain is. Despite being so close to each other, neither we nor the terrorists below us were aware of each other’s presence for nearly half-an-hour!
So all that terrorists have to do in such areas is to occupy a concealed place offering good observation and lie in wait for the security forces to approach. Once its leading elements are at close range, the terrorists engage them with fire from automatics and/or grenades and then make good their escape while the security forces deploy to identify the location from where they have been attacked. Even if there are no casualties, troops have no other choice but to advance with due caution and this gives terrorists adequate time to get away or redeploy and target the search party.
Those who participated in Operation Trashi-I deserve due appreciation for their extraordinary valour, dogged determination and perseverance that brought about this spectacular success. Their stellar performance also reflects the high level of operational readiness, professional proficiency and extraordinary motivation level within the Indian security forces due to which Pakistan’s proxy war in J&K has lost its momentum. It's however extremely distressing to see vested interests and prejudiced minds making crass comments on matters military or combat actions.
Readers would recall that during the initial stages of Operation Trashi-I, eight security force personnel suffered injuries with one soldier later succumbing to his injuries. At that time there were many with little or no ground knowledge of counter-terrorist operations who posted snide remarks regarding professional competence of the security forces on social media.
Furthermore, when there was no report of any contact for several days, many assumed that Saifullah and his associates had given the security forces a slip once again and that Operation Trashi-I had therefore been called off. Sunday’s encounter that saw the end of the Saifullah group is not only a befitting reply to critics but also a clear message that the Indian army neither forgets nor forgives those who pose a threat to their country or countrymen.

Email:----------------------------------nileshkunwar56@gmail.com