Just a few yards back, the menfolk had stopped us. They lifted their shirts and showed bruises on their backs, where they had been hit by sticks and rifle-butts. At day-break on Friday, soldiers had come to their houses. ``They would hit us first and then ask anything,'' a villager said.

The soldiers were angry over the loss of a Captain -- the commander at the Army post at Chak Natnusa -- and four men in an audacious militant operation. Forested hills overlook the post, and the private houses around it. A patrol had just trooped back into the post. The militants fired first from one direction, then converged on it from the other three. A dozen rocket-propelled grenades hit the compound which houses a couple of small buildings.

The militants took cover against thewalls of the houses, almost next to the compound as they opened up with the rockets, machine guns and AK rifles. According to the Army, there was firing from inside some of the houses as well -- some spent bullet cases were found in one house. A civilian died in the cross-fire.

Next morning's thrashing of the villages was in retaliation for this. Armymen feel the villagers might have been in league with the militants, allowing them to come right up to the post. Or they might have been forced to do it at gunpoint. The villagers deny either and are bitter.

The villagers say the jawans were restrained by the arrival of the Commanding Officer of the battalion, Col Balbir Singh. ``He came and showered abuses at them,'' a villager says. The colonel had the reputation of fighting a clean war, and despite aberrations -- like the one following Chak Natnusa -- his 4 Rashtriya Rifles had a good reputation. On Saturday, his convoy was attacked.

Monday morning at the Army helipad in Srinagar, his wife was cryingover his coffin.

The Chak Natnusa attack came when the new unit was just three days old, and in the process of settling in. The strength of the attackers is estimated at between 20 and 40. After storming into the compound, some of them asked the soldiers to surrender. ``We are Afghanis,'' they shouted. ``You are just a children's army (bachchonwali Army).''

The soldiers invited them to come out of their cover and find out. When a group did jump out for an assault, three militants were felled by the soldiers. Altogether six militants were killed in the gunfight, levelling the score in that encounter. One of them was Saleem Kashmiri, the kind of militant official handouts describe as `dreaded.' But then as an officer in Kupwara says dismissively, ``Everybody is `dreaded' out here.''

Chak Natnusa was followed by the Keegam attack which killed the Colonel and three others. A few hours later, militants fired rockets into a brigade headquarters at Trehgam, also in Kupwara district. The series remindsmany of the earlier days of militancy, when militants appeared to be on the offensive.

With Kargil erupting many `regular' Army units shifted closer to the LoC, leaving Rashtriya Rifles (RR) formations and the para-military forces to carry out counter-insurgency operations in the Valley. Compared to pre-Kargil days, the security forces are now stretched thin. Less troops on the ground affects the domination of the area by the security forces. Just the kind of situation which allows militants to group for a Chak Natnusa-type adventure.

With elections only weeks away, the situation hardly inspires confidence among political workers. Local leaders from a spectrum of parties met the Kupwara deputy commissioner recently, complaining about the security situation.

The ruling National Conference activists, who project themselves as the only pro-India people on the political landscape, are particularly jittery. ``I don't think there is enough security,'' says local MLA Saifullah Mir. ``If it remains like this, Idon't think there could be any free campaigning.''

He recently got a letter from activists from Manchatar Chowkibal village, asking him to cancel a planned visit. He shares their feeling of insecurity. Talking about a recent public meeting he says: ``When the rally was on, all I was concerned about was when do I finish and leave the place.''