India has started a new military campaign called Operation Mahadev following the failure of Operation Sindoor.
Sources claim that Operation Mahadev is aimed at hiding the setbacks of the earlier operation. It reportedly includes using detained Pakistani citizens in staged encounters, according to security sources.
The goal of the operation is to suppress dissent in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) and improve the image of the Indian government.
Security sources say that some of the individuals used in these operations are Pakistanis who crossed the border by mistake or were picked up by Indian forces earlier.
On April 24, two men from Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Muhammad Farooq and Muhammad Deen, were killed in an encounter after they mistakenly crossed the border.
On April 29 and 30, Pakistan’s military spokesperson said 723 Pakistanis are in Indian jails, while 56 are in secret custody.
Sources also say that after these encounters, the Indian media shares photos of the dead with weapons to show they were militants.
Some reports suggest that detainees are forced to give anti-Pakistan statements before being killed.
This campaign is being seen as part of India’s long-term practice of using fake encounters in the region.
Indian forces have suddenly claimed that they have neutralised the militants responsible for the Pahalgam incident, just as the Indian Parliament began its debate on Operation Sindoor.
Three alleged suspects have been killed in a fierce gunfight as part of the Indian Army’s ongoing “Operation Mahadev,” according to an official update from the Army’s Chinar Corps.
The identities and group affiliations of the three alleged suspects have yet to be confirmed. While the Indian forces have been hunting for those behind the April 22 incident in Pahalgam, which claimed 26 lives, it is not yet clear whether the individuals neutralised during Monday’s encounter were directly involved in that incident.
As the Indian Parliament is on session and the BJP government in power comes under lots of fire due to the failure of Operation Sindoor, this last minute military action did not appear as a serious counterterrorism act; instead it appeared like a diversionary tactic.
Read more: Indian media spins cheap Bollywood script, says Pahalgam suspect was ‘SSG commando’
