Some of their operations are more stunning than the ones that have been carried out by Western intelligence agencies

New Delhi: A select group of personnel from Indian security agencies, who have been given the responsibility of staging anti-terror operations in terror-prone areas, have executed several meticulous, silent operations in the last few months.

The complete details of such operations, if they come in the public domain in case they are declassified one day, will show the level of meticulous planning that went into these operations, apart from showing how these personnel applied their mind and exercised their patience, while working in unfavourable conditions.

Some of these operations are more stunning than the ones that have been carried out by Western agencies or are shown in popular TV series like Fauda and Homeland, that are based on the anti-terror operations carried out by Mossad and CIA.

In multiple instances, these operations were spread across months after which the targets literally walked into the spot the security forces had chosen for apprehending or eliminating them.

A target, who was eliminated in one such silent operation, was among the most influential individuals who had become priority number one because of his ability to indoctrinate gullible minds and his modus operandi of killing unarmed civilians to spread terror in a particular Indian state.

In another similar operation, senior personnel went incommunicado for six months and emerged only after the stated objectives were achieved. What they did during this time period is known only to their seniors.

An entire group of “X” number of terrorists was neutralized in another similar operation. While the security forces could have taken down some of them in the initial days of the operation, they did not. Rather they carried out their stated objective only after all the members were identified, an exercise that took months.

An official who has been supervising such operations said: “Many such extremely silent operations have been undertaken and executed successfully in the recent past. Eliminating terrorists in a ‘chance encounter’ is perhaps the easiest way of getting rid of him. What makes us even more lethal and creates a sense of fear in the hearts of the terrorists are the silent operations we carry out that are spread across months and years. The target in most cases realises the web he was in just seconds before he is eliminated.”

The Sunday Guardian is not disclosing the identity of the government organisation or the locations where such recent operations were executed to protect operational details. The names of the targets who fell to these operations, too, are not being disclosed for similar reasons. According to an officer, in many cases, the operation is undertaken with the intention to arrest the accused and not to eliminate him which is the case when the target is a hardcore terrorist who has proved over a period, that he will not be able to leave terrorism.

“There have been cases where the target has been arrested after months of effort. We don’t rush in at the first chance; the agencies have evolved in their way of doing anti-terror operations and now things are done more patiently. Due to this, the ‘thinkers’ among these terror groups now live in constant fear of being arrested or killed 24×7 because now, they are not just being eliminated in chance encounters, but being taken down when they are least expecting it. Such a deadly scenario is very disturbing for any individual’s psyche, even a hardened terrorist,” another officer said.

Due to the secrecy attached to them, most of these operations rarely get mentioned beyond one column or 100 words in a newspaper, the officer explained. In the coming months, officers who played a crucial part in these operations are likely to be recognised by the Union government for their effort and bravery.