A grave dimension to spurt in J&K terrorism

Srinagar: The recovery of an Austrian assault rifle from two slain foreign terrorists in Jammu & Kashmir’s Keran sector on July 18 has added another complex dimension to the ongoing terrorism in J&K. The first weapon to be recovered from the militants in J&K was on September 12, 1988. Militants had attacked the residence of the then Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) Ali Mohammad Watali, in Raj Bagh residential area of Srinagar city.

One militant identified as Aijaz Dar, who lived in the nearby Jawahar Nagar area was killed in retaliatory firing by the guards at the DIG’s residence and one assault rifle was recovered from his possession. Another senior police officer, Shaikh Owais was the Superintendent of Police (SP), Srinagar at that time. Owais was among the first senior officers to reach the DIG’s residence since he also lived in the same area.

This was a weapon not in use in the police force, nor was it the standard weapon issued to the army back then. At a meeting of the experts called in from the army, the weapon was identified as Kalashnikov. It belonged to a family of assault rifles also known as AK platform, AK rifle or simply AK based on the original design of Mikhail Kalashnikov. Experts identified the rifle as AK-47, officially known as the Avtomat Kalashnikova which is the originating firearm of the Kalashnikov family of rifles. It was developed in the Soviet Union by Russian small-arms designer Mikhail Kalashnikov in the middle of the 20th century. “AK-47's name stands for Automat Kalashnikova 1947, the year it was first produced. In 1949, the AK-47 became the assault rifle of the Soviet Army,” an officer said.

Over the years, since 1988, the militants started using long-range sniper rifles and also the subsequent versions of the AK rifle series like AK-54 and AK-74 denoting the year of manufacture of the rifle with improvements over the original AK-47 version.

J& K police force was not issued any assault rifle of the AK series till then, and to combat the firepower of the adversary, police, paramilitary and the army were subsequently issued assault rifles of the AK series as well in addition to Indian-made INSAS rifles. “The possession of AK assault rifles by the militants unequivocally established that they had been trained and issued weapons by trainers of the Pakistan army. Due to the presence of the Russians in Afghanistan and Pakistan's support to the Afghan militias, AK rifles were aplenty in Pakistan since practically no border existed between the two countries at that time,” said a senior intelligence officer.

As militancy sprouted into outright terrorism by the entry of the foreign mercenaries into J&K by the middle of 1990s, more weapons in their improvised versions like AK-54, AK-74 and under-barrel grenade launchers (UBGLs) came to be used by the terrorists.

Since the foreign mercenaries were battle-hardened, the security forces had to live up to the growing challenge by introducing Para commandos and those trained in mountain warfare into its anti-terrorism operations in J&K. “J&K police also underwent a sweeping change in its training of commandos, use and expertise of modern assault rifles and strenuous training in developing stamina and focus. Commitment to eradicate terrorism and usher in peace was the preamble of such training,” said a senior police officer supervising physical and weapon handling training of the local police force.

Paramilitary forces like BSF and CRPF were not behind in bringing their troops up to the maximum level of efficiency to deal with terrorism in different parts of the country. As terrorism started getting more hands by way of foreign mercenaries who were pushed into J&K from across the border, motivated and indoctrinated by both religious fanaticism and the lure of money, the handlers and their masters in the Pakistan army started encouraging them with better weapons.

On July 11, 2022, one M4 carbine rifle was recovered from an encounter site in the Awantipora area of Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district where Jaish-e-Muhammad commander, Kaiser Koka and one another terrorist were killed. This was a new challenge for the security forces. The M4 carbine also replaced most submachine guns and selected handguns in US military service, as it fired more effective rifle ammunition that offered superior stopping power and was better able to penetrate modern body armour.

“A review had become necessary of the bulletproof vests issued to the security forces. The older version of the BP jacket wouldn’t suffice to meet the new challenge. “Better and lighter BP jackets have been issued to security forces fighting terrorism and these are designed to stop the armour-piercing bullets,” said another senior police officer deployed on anti-terrorism operations.

While M4 assault rifle is US-made and it is issued to the American army, it is obvious that while leaving Afghanistan, the US forces left behind some of their sophisticated weaponry which came into the hands of the Afghan fighters. This assault rifle found its way into J&K through Pakistan. On July 17, 2024, two foreign terrorists were killed by the army while foiling an infiltration bid on the LoC in the Keran sector.

A Steyr AUG assault rifle was recovered from the slain terrorists. “The StG 77 (Sturmgewehr 77) is the designation given by the Austrian Armed Forces when they adopted the Steyr AUG in 1977. This is the standard assault rifle issued to the Austrian army. “The Steyr bullpup assault rifle is only matched by the Israeli-made Tavor assault rifle. “Tavor is a gas-operated, selective-fire bullpup assault rifle built around a long-stroke piston system. The main objective behind the development of Tavor is to maximise reliability, durability, simplicity of design, and maintenance-free, particularly under unfavourable or battlefield conditions.

“Tavor has a semi-automatic mode, burst mode and full-auto mode chambered in standard 5.56×45 mm ammunition. It is considered to be more reliable and accurate than M4 carbine of the US and Steyr of Austria. The Tavor TAR-21 holds magazines of 30 rounds,” said an arms expert. “As challenges are in plenty for the security forces fighting terrorism in J&K, weapons systems, armour-resistant apparel and other equipment used by our security forces are regularly and constantly reviewed. “A couple of M4 carbine rifles or Austrian bullpup assault rifles cannot save the terrorist from a professionally trained and highly modernised army of India,” said the senior intelligence officer. For obvious reasons, no serving intelligence, security forces and army expert speaking to IANS agreed to be quoted by name.