Having eliminated four top terrorists of Islamic State Jammu and Kashmir (ISJK), that is Islamic State’s face in Kashmir, the security forces are now hunting for 21 most wanted terrorists of five outfits who are suspected to be hiding in the South Kashmir, which will be the hub of the Amarnath pilgrimage that begins on 28 June.

Intelligence reports indicate that the terrorists might have been planning to hit the pilgrimage in a bigger way than last year. In 2017, ten pilgrims lost their life when the bus in which they were travelling was attacked near Pulwama.

Army commander of the Northern Command, Lieutenant General Ranbir Singh personally visited South Kashmir to take stock of the security arrangement for the Amarnath pilgrimage.

Sources said that elimination of these terrorists, many of who were in the top category of “A++”, was now the main focus of the security forces before beginning of the pilgrimage.

These terrorists belong to Islamic State Jammu Kashmir (ISJK) Hizbul Mujahideen (HM), Lashkar-e-Tayiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) and Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind (AGH), which is also an offshoot of the ISIS. Among them also is Junaid Sehrai of the HM, who is son of Ashraf Sehrai—the right hand man of separatist Syed Alishah Geelani.

The security forces are somewhat having free hand in tackling with the situation after imposition of Governor’s rule in the state, still they exercise restraint to avoid collateral damage.

The month-long unilateral ceasefire announced by the Centre during the holy month of Ramzan has upset the local intelligence system of various agencies as terrorists took the opportunity to threaten with dire consequences local people particularly in the South and North Kashmir against passing on information to security forces about presence of terrorists in the villages.

ISIS had been showing its presence in Kashmir for the past about five years but the authorities have remained in denial mode on the issue. It was only in February that the Jammu and Kashmir DGP, SP Vaid, confirmed that a terrorist killed in an encounter was from ISJK.

Mobs of violent youth waving ISIS and Pakistan flags had become a permanent fixture outside the Jama Masjid in Srinagar after the sermons of separatist Mirwaiz Umar Farooq on every Friday.

Radicalisation of the home grown militants in Kashmir came to the fore few months ago when Zakir Musa severed ties with the HM and threatened to behead the separatist Hurriyat leaders and hang their heads in the Lal Chowk of Srinagar.

Governor NN Vohra on Friday visited the base camps of Amarnath pilgrimage at Panjtarni and Baltal to review the security arrangements. He also flew to the cave shrine and visited the access control gate at Domel and the helipad at Neelgrath. He also discussed the security measures with top officers of Army, J&K Police, CRPF, BSF, ITBP, NDRF and SDRF.