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After the success of Operation Vijay at Kargil in 1999, the Indian Armed Forces have consistently followed a doctrine of limited warfare in all their engagements. According to former Chief of Army Staff General V P Malik, the Kargil endeavour was “a lesson to see that an irregular or proxy war could escalate into a limited conventional war.”
Illustration by The Geostrata
Fighting border infiltration while keeping this in mind has been the Indian Army’s central mode of operation since the 1990s. This limited approach is a mixture of counterinsurgency, counterterrorism, and a ‘hearts and minds’ campaign to ensure local welfare and deradicalisation.
The undertaking has since then yielded two major pillars of the Indian Army’s current posture in conflict-ridden areas.
The first was the application of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) to disturbed areas in the northeast in 1958, and to the state of Jammu and Kashmir in 1990, which gave regional security forces the freedom to carry out operations in a decentralised manner.
The second was the raising of the Rashtriya Rifles as a counterinsurgency force in 1990 for area domination and control in fifteen operational ‘sectors’ in Jammu and Kashmir. These two actions have resulted in a series of operations by the Indian Armed Forces that have since then improved stability in the region.
The most exemplary of these operations include Operation Rakshak (1990-present), Operation All Out (2017), Operation Sarp Vinash (2003), and ongoing counterinsurgency efforts in the northeast.
OPERATION RAKSHAK
Currently, in its second phase, Operation Rakshak is an ongoing CI/CT endeavour to control militancy in J&K and Punjab that involves various peacekeeping activities such as searches, day and night patrols, civic duties, and cordons.
It is an umbrella operation that covers all efforts to curb and prevent militancy in the area. It is led by the army and involves units from the tri-services and paramilitary forces, drawing additional personnel from the Armed Forces Special Operations Division (AFSOD) and the various Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) while relying on the Special Operations Group (SOG) of the Jammu and Kashmir Police for local support.
It has largely been successful in cleaning up militant-infested areas and maintaining and managing civic discipline in areas away from the border. A distinctive trait of Operation Rakshak is the priority given to the interests of civilians and locals.
Troops are routinely trained to be in touch with the social ground reality in their operational sectors, and time and again, precedence has been given to re-establishing civil administration whenever it has had to go out of order.
The expansive effort has also come at the cost of the precious lives of security personnel, with 753 Army personnel having been killed in action according to 2015 casualty numbers. Major Mohit Sharma of the 1st Para SF was posthumously awarded the Ashoka Chakra, India’s highest peacetime gallantry award, for his part in this operation back in 2009, along with Corporal Jyoti Prakash Nirala of the Garud Commando Special Forces of the Indian Air Force, who was also posthumously conferred the award in 2017.
OPERATION SARP VINASH
The Indian Army initiated this effort to ‘eradicate serpents’ in 2003 in the Poonch-Surankote area of the Pir Panjal range. It was mainly carried out in four phases from January to May by the Counter Insurgency Force (Romeo) of the Rashtriya Rifles, whose operational jurisdiction covers the Poonch and Rajouri areas.
In the first phase of the operation, Rashtriya Rifles’ CIF (R) units consolidated their supply and combat support networks and began efforts to establish operational bases. In the second phase, local herders were relocated to safety so that the security forces could exercise their sweeping fire authority over the region, and their bases were secured.
In the third phase, cordons were strategically placed to prevent the entry of undesirable elements into the operational area, and devastating attacks were mounted on militant hideouts in the final phase of the operation.
The 9th Para SF, CIF (R), and the 163 Infantry Brigade eliminated 65 high-value targets in adverse mountainous conditions, making Operation Sarp Vinasha textbook example of highly effective counterterrorist activity.
OPERATION ALL OUT
Following the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in 2016, local unrest was brewing in the valley. On 10 July 2017, pilgrims undertaking the Amarnath Yatra were attacked by Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists, and eight pilgrims were killed. Subsequently, the Ministry of Home Affairs brought together the Indian Army, CRPF, J&K Police and the Intelligence Bureau (IB) in a joint offensive on terror in the state.
The operational objectives included the neutralisation of as many as 258 militants spread over the state belonging to LeT, Jaish-e-Mohammad, Hizbul Mujahideen, and Al-Badr, and the complete flushing out of militancy in tough-to-access regions of J&K.
The operation was a success, with over 206 terrorists having been killed by the security forces in 2017. Among these were Burhan Wani’s influential successor Sabzar Ahmad Bhat the nephews of Jaish chief Masood Azhar, and 26/11 mastermind Zakir Ur Rehman Lakhvi. Significant emphasis was also placed on efforts to bring young and misguided militants back into the mainstream, following a large wave of radicalization in 2017.
These operations commonly display three major hallmarks of the modern Indian approach to counterterrorism and counterinsurgency.
Firstly, a significant increase in Indian security forces’ CI/CT capabilities since the beginning of their practice in the 1950s is evident. Secondly, local interests and civil responsibilities are now more important than ever. This has succeeded in winning the ‘hearts and minds’ of the public as intended, and day-to-day normalcy has returned to most of the state.
Finally, giving the armed forces greater operational powers has paid off. As a result, militancy has been reduced and proactive measures to prevent radicalisation of the state’s youth are underway in full swing.
BY ADHITYA BHARGAVA
TEAM GEOSTRATA
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