The alleged abduction of a soldier of the Indian Army, who was on leave, is not an isolated incident, it is a modus operandi of terror outfits operating in Jammu and Kashmir to create a fear psychosis among youth against joining the armed forces.
Although Director General of Jammu and Kashmir Police Dilbag Singh on Tuesday exuded confidence that the missing soldier will be located soon, search operations to trace Javid Ahmed Wani entered the fourth day on Wednesday.
"An army jawan on leave has been reported missing a few days back. Police and security forces are carrying out operations and, in view of the clues that are with us, we will be able to locate him very soon," DGP told media persons at Srinagar on Tuesday.
Amid ongoing search operations investigating teams questioned more suspects in connection with tracing the missing soldier.
Posted in the mountainous region of Ladakh, Javid Ahmed was supposed to join work on Sunday but went missing on Saturday evening. His car was found abandoned at Paranhall.
Family members of Javed Ahmad Wani feared that he has been abducted by terrorists.
A video has gone viral on social media in which the family members are seen appealing for the release of Javed Ahmad Wani. The fear-stricken family members said that Wani has no enmity with anyone and was on leave for one month. They appealed to those who might have abducted the soldier to release him alive since he was the only breadwinner of the family.
Wani is the sixth soldier abducted in Kashmir since the inception of terrorism in the Valley.
- The first incident of abducting and killing a soldier of the Army took place in the early 1990s when Lieutenant Colonel GS Bali was kidnapped along with his cousin from Badgam in 1991 and killed. Both had gone to attend a funeral.
- Lt. Col. G. S. Bali, and his brother Surinder Singh were kidnapped from Budgam and put to brutal killings on October 21, 1991.
- After a gap of 16 long years, it was in May 2017 when terrorists kidnapped a twenty-two-year-old promising officer with the Rajputana Rifles of the Indian Army, Lieutenant Umer Fayaz, from his home in south Kashmir's Shopian district. He was brutally tortured before being killed by terrorists.
- Son of a farmer in south Kashmir, Lieutenant Fayaz was commissioned into the Indian Army in 2016 and was on leave to attend his cousin's wedding.
- Another similar incident took place in Shopian again. This time a daring soldier of the Indian Army soldier Aurangzeb, a native of the border town of Mendhar of Poonch, was abducted at gunpoint in June 2018. The bullet-ridden body of Aurangzeb was found at Gusoo, Pulwama.
- Aurangzeb was a rifleman with the 44 Rashtriya Rifles. He was in a private vehicle when he was abducted near Kalampora.
- Aurangzeb was going to Poonch via Mughal Road to celebrate Eid with his family.
- The story of Shakir Manzoor Wagay was different. He was kidnapped in August 2020 and his decomposed body was found in September 2021. A year after he was abducted by terrorists.
- Twenty-four-year-old Wagay who was a rifleman with the Indian Army's Territorial Army unit, had come home to celebrate Eid in Reshipora village of Shopian district.
- In March 2022 soldier of the Indian Army Sameer Ahmad Malla by abducted and killed by a proscribed Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terror outfit in central Kashmir's Budgam district.
- Sameer, who was on leave, was kidnapped by terrorists from the Khag area of Budgam on March 7, 2022, and his body was recovered on March 10, 2022.
Terrorists are frustrated as thousands turned up at Army's recruitment rallies
Frustrated over the overwhelming response of Kashmiri youth towards recruitment rallies being conducted by the Army from time to time in Kashmir Valley, terrorists are repeatedly targeting local youth recruited in the Army to create a fear psychosis.
Lieutenant General B S Jaswal, who served in Kashmir Valley for many years in different positions, said that it was the strategy of the terrorists and their mentors sitting across the border to create fear among Kashmiri youth against joining the Indian Army.
General Jaswal, who served as General Officer Commanding in Chief (GoC-in-C) Northern Command told International Bussiness Times after abducting soldiers terrorists intentionally tortured them to create terror among youth.
"Terror outfits want to create a fear psychosis amongst the people of Kashmir, especially youth so that they should not dare to join the Armed Forces", the former Army commander said.
Decorated five times, General Jaswal has a family history of military service. The retired general spent most of his career conducting counterinsurgency operations in Kashmir Valley in different positions.
The former Army Commander observed that it is a good sign that braving such threats, youth of Kashmir are turning up in good numbers to join recruitment rallies of the Army.
"Despite such tactics of the terror outfits, youth in large numbers are still participating in the process of joining the Armed forces", he observed.
