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Terrorists putting down weapons more than ever before

Last Updated on November 25, 2020 at 5:17 pm

Security forces in Jammu & Kashmir are more and more persuading militants to put down arms during anti-militancy operations in the region. This persuading is increased  specially after the fake Shopian encounter of July 2020, which claimed the lives of three labourers.

Police sources claim that half a dozen militants have surrendered since the fake encounter. 9 militants have surrendered during live encounters in 2020– of which 7 of the total 9 encounters took place after the Shopian fake encounter.

In October 2020, the Jammu and Kashmir Police claimed that security forces and the police are successfully convincing the misguided youth to come back, even during live action.

A senior security correspondent who works with a local news agency told The Quint that even though many militants used to surrender from time to time, this year after the Shopian fake encounter, security forces made extra efforts to persuade militants to surrender. He told The Quint that unlike in the past, this year security forces were also seen making videos during live encounters which showed militants surrendering, and then would circulate those on social media platforms.

The security forces are widely sharing videos on the social media platforms showing militants surrendering. It can be seen in these videos that security personnel are appealing to the youth to surrender and give up their arms.

In one of such videos, a soldier can be seen assuring a trapped militant that he won’t be harmed if he surrenders, and orders his colleagues not to fire as the militant starts to walk with hands raised towards them. When the militant reaches them, the soldiers give him water as he sits down to rest.

In another of these videos, the family of militant could be seen thanking the soldiers for bringing their son back alive. Then, they hug their son and assure the soldiers that they won’t let their son go back to militancy.

Senior journalist, Syed Aijaz, who works with local Urdu newspaper Kashmir Uzma told The Quint that in the past, security forces would not easily reveal the news of a surrendered militant. But this year the security forces have taken a new approach of taking videos of militants surrendering during live encounters. He also admitted that since the Shopian fake encounter, more militants than usual are surrendering.