IN THE PAST three years, terror attacks in Jammu have killed 48 soldiers. Seven attacks have taken place in the past month alone, the latest being an encounter in which four soldiers were killed in Koti forest in Doda district on July 16. The attackers, like in most cases in recent times, escaped.
The spate of attacks began on July 8, when five soldiers were killed and five were wounded in an ambush on two army vehicles at Badnota in Kathua district. The attackers had grenades and armour-piercing bullets, and they fled when the soldiers retaliated. Subsequent investigations indicated that there was an organised effort to target Jammu after decades of peace.
The Badnota attack had the Army, the police and the Central Reserve Police Force launching a massive search operation deploying drones, helicopters and sniffer dogs. The suspicion is that terrorists hiding in Udhampur’s Basantgarh forest could have been involved. Basantgarh is connected to Machedi forest near Badnota, which in the 1990s were used by infiltrators crossing the Kathua border.
Terrorists have been using the mountainous terrain, especially in Poonch and Rajouri districts, to their advantage. The attacks have highlighted this rising threat, and cast a shadow on the assembly polls, which the Supreme Court had ordered to be held by September.
Security forces have been asked to enforce anti-terror measures in Jammu that are as stringent as those in Kashmir. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has urged security officials to utilise the “full spectrum of counter-terror capabilities”. The police say terrorists had local support that helped them evade detection. They have reportedly identified a module that provided temporary shelter to terrorists and facilitated their movements. Six members of the alleged module have been detained.
The police have warned that those who support terrorists would be charged with the Enemy Agents Act, which is harsher than that the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. EAA mandates punishments ranging from life imprisonment to death sentence.
R.R. Swain, director general of police, said local people found to be involved in providing shelter, or aiding a foreign terrorist in any way, would be booked under EAA. “The only thing we have to prove is that the person supported the foreign terrorist who came here to destabilise peace and kill innocent people,” he said.
A high-ranking security official said terrorists finding local support was worrying. He said the thinning of troops in the Pir Panjal range because of the Chinese threat in Ladakh was another reason for heightened terrorist activity in Rajouri and Poonch. “Unlike Kashmir, where population density is high, most hilly areas of Jammu are sparsely populated, making it easy for terrorists to move around,” he said. “The number of terrorists active in Jammu’s mountainous regions is higher than earlier estimates.” The estimate earlier was 50.
Outfits such as The Resistance Front (TRF) and the People’s Anti-Fascist Front (PAFF), which the police say are Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Muhammad in disguise, have claimed responsibility for recent attacks. The use of non-Islamic names by terror groups is a phenomenon witnessed after the abrogation of Article 370. Their tactics, however, remain the same―hurling grenades at vehicles, shooting the driver and spraying the vehicle with bullets. Apart from M4 carbines, terrorists have been using military-grade communication devices made in China. One such equipment was recovered after an encounter in July last year at Sindarah Top in Poonch district.
Thirty-eight quick reaction teams (QRTs) of security forces are being deployed in all 10 districts of Jammu. A high-level meeting of senior Border Security Force and police officials from Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab was recently held in Kathua. The meeting focused on the situation along the India-Pakistan border, strengthening the anti-infiltration grid and sharing real-time intelligence.
Observers say the restoration of the political and democratic process is key to addressing the security situation in Jammu. They believe the political vacuum created in the aftermath of the voiding of Article 370 has alienated people from the government and the security forces. This has allowed forces inimical to peace in Jammu and Kashmir to exploit the situation.
The political vacuum has also resulted in a war of words between Swain and Peoples Democratic Party president and former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti. Swain had earlier remarked that mainstream and regional political parties in the valley had facilitated Pakistan’s “infiltration into civil society”. Mehbooba responded that the surge in violence in Jammu demanded accountability from officers like Swain. “Heads should have rolled by now,” she said. “The DGP (Swain) should have been sacked by now.”
She has accused Swain of trying to “fix things politically”. “He is more into how to crush the PDP and harass the people,” Mehbooba said.
The situation has even the BJP’s allies in Kashmir rattled. Sajad Lone of the People’s Conference, which supports the BJP, said the Union government should “end this pain” and restore statehood to Jammu and Kashmir.
“The assembly elections must be held on time,” he wrote on X on July 11. “Let my worst electoral rival be elected. I would prefer that government a million times over an alien government which falsely claims to be stakeholders with political and social sanctity.”