New Delhi: With assembly elections set to be held there for the first time in a decade, all eyes are on security arrangements being put in place in Jammu and Kashmir by central and local security agencies. Sources in the defence and security establishment told ThePrint they are confident of conducting the elections peacefully, though there was admission of concerns over the uptick in terror incidents in Jammu region.
Accordingly, the security grid in the Union territory, especially in Jammu region, has been tightened with induction and deployment of an additional over division level strength including special forces. Two Battalions of the Assam Rifles are also being inducted into the Jammu region to further strengthen the security grid with personnel experienced in counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency operations.
Sources explained that fresh deployment has been made in the upper reaches of the Pir Panjal range, adding that there is concern over the new set of terrorists who managed to infiltrate into the Jammu region over the last year-and-a-half. Totalling about 4-50 in number, they are well trained and equipped with sophisticated equipment, it is learnt.
Since 2021, security forces have lost over 52 personnel to firefights with terrorists in Jammu region.
An analysis of terror attacks in the Jammu region shows that these terrorists have managed to operate and move with ease, lure soldiers into ambushes or strike soft targets among them, usually while a convoy is moving sans any road opening party (ROP). Most attacks on convoys have taken place in areas where ROP was not the norm.
This meant the terrorists have managed to figure out deployment patterns of the forces prior to inductions of additional troops, sources said.
On more than one occasion, terrorists recorded attacks on security forces using cell phones or body cameras. Some of these attacks were marked by mutilations, beheading or an attempt to behead.
While these terrorists operate under the banners of outfits previously unheard of—People’s Anti-Fascist Front (PAFF), Kashmir Tigers and Resistance Front, among others—they are believed to be fronts for Pakistan-based terror groups LeT and JeM.
According to sources, the group of about 40-50 terrorists who infiltrated into the Jammu region mainly from the International Border manned by the Border Security Force (BSF), are armed with American M4 rifles, night vision sights and telescopic lenses, besides encrypted radio sets. They operate in smaller groups of 3-5 each.
Over the last few years, Pakistan has been sending drugs and weapons across the border through drones. While BSF did manage to seize some, including M4 rifles dropped by drone in Kathua, there was a lapse on the part of security agencies to read into the larger game plan.
What is caught is always just a fraction of what actually makes it through the border, said sources in the defence and security establishment.
An intelligence vacuum, lack of counter ambush tactics, along with thinned-out deployment of the Rashtriya Rifles (RR) units over the years and diversion of troops after the Ladakh standoff with China, besides dual Command issues along with the need to project normalcy, seem to be the main reasons behind the terror surge in Jammu region.
With voting set to be held in Jammu and Kashmir in three phases starting 18 September, ThePrint takes a look at some of the major terror attacks on security forces in the Jammu region since 2021.
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IAF base attack: June 2021
The first major attack in 2021 took place on 27 June when two drones evaded anti-drone systems to drop two low-intensity improvised explosive devices (IEDs) at the Indian Air Force (IAF) base in Jammu. The IEDs exploded “close to the helicopter hangar”. One caused minor damage to the roof of a building while the other exploded in an open area.
This was a first-of-its-kind incident involving the use of drones to attack a security establishment in India, as ThePrint reported at the time.
Surankote ambush: October 2021
Barely four months after the drone attack, Army personnel acting on intelligence about a group of terrorists hiding in the Charmer forests in Surankote in Poonch district were ambushed on 11 October 2021. Five Army personnel, including a Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO), were killed in the ambush. In response, the Army expanded its search operation to include Thanamandi in Rajouri and Mendhar in Poonch district.
Sources said the terrorists were able to move very freely in the region and seemed very well accustomed to the terrain. On 16 October, the terrorists managed to ambush another team of Army personnel scouting the area.
Another four soldiers, including a JCO, were killed in this ambush. The operation went on for 20 days before it was called off and the terrorists managed to get away.
Mine blast: October, 2021
Even as the operation in Poonch was underway, a young lieutenant and a jawan were killed in a mine blast along the Line of Control (LoC) in a forward post in the Nowshera sector in Rajouri on 30 October, 2021.
It is learnt that the IED was set up well within the Indian side of the LoC by either Pakistan Army operatives or terrorists to target the Army column on patrol duty to check for infiltration.
IED explosions: 3-4 November, 2021
Two Army soldiers were injured in two separate IED explosions in the Kerni sector of Poonch within a span of 24 hours between 3 and 4 November, according to the South Asia Terrorism Portal.
Foiled infiltration attempt: January 2022
The Army managed to foil a major infiltration attempt in Hamirpur area of Bhimber Gali in Rajouri district. However, it is not clear if some of the terrorists managed to infiltrate. A search operation was launched but the Army recovered no bodies at the time.
IED attacks: March, April 2022
One person was killed and 15 others were injured when a low-intensity improvised explosive device (IED) exploded outside a district court complex in Slathia Chowk in Udhampur district on 9 March.
This was followed by two explosions in a market in Rajouri’s Kotranka on 26 March, and another blast in Budhal on 19 April which left two injured. Two more were injured in yet another explosion that took place in Shahpur-Budhal area of Rajouri on 24 April.
Incidentally, these explosions coincided with a suge in infiltration attempts in Poonch and Rajouri.
Army camp attack: August 2022
Just ahead of Independence Day in 2022, five soldiers were killed while thwarting an attempt by terrorists to enter an Army camp in Rajouri. The Army said at the time that sentries spotted two terrorists trying to cut through the barbed wire and an encounter ensued in which both terrorists were killed. This was the first major terrorist attack on an Army facility in Jammu and Kashmir since the Sunjwan camp attack in February 2018.
Dhangri massacre: January 2023
On 1 January 2023, two armed terrorists barged into the homes of three Hindu families in Upper Dhangri village and opened indiscriminate fire, killing five civilians. The next day, a four-year-old boy and a teenage girl were killed in an IED explosion in the same area.
Army truck attack: April 2023
The Dhangri attacks were followed by a brief lull, which came to an end on 20 April when terrorists opened fire and lobbed grenades at an Army truck—moving between Bhimber Gali and Poonch—killing five soldiers.
The truck, carrying kitchen provisions and moving without any ROP, was hit at a particular spot on the road where vehicles had to slow down to make a turn. Terrorists also set it on fire by throwing a grenade under it.
This attack had been captured by terrorists using body cameras.
Bhata Dhurian ambush: May 2023
Five soldiers from the Army’s elite 9 Para SF were killed in a firefight with terrorists in the jungles of Bhata Dhurian in the Rajouri sector on 5 May.
It is learnt that the team had moved into the forest area acting on intelligence about the location of a group of terrorists. The 9 Para SF troops reached the location but found no trace of the terrorists. This is when they were attacked. An officer of the rank of Captain, who was with the group, managed to escape.
This attack, too, was captured on camera with the footage later released suggesting bodies of soldiers killed in the ambush had been mutilated. At the time, the Army’s Northern Command in a statement conveyed that its personnel had been conducting “relentless intelligence-based operations to flush out a group of terrorists involved in an ambush on an Army truck in the Tota Gali area of Bhata Dhurian in Jammu region last month”.
Bajimaal ambush: November 2023
On 23 November, Army units received intelligence about terrorists hiding at a particular location in Bajimaal in Kalakote tehsil of Rajouri district. But soldiers heading to the location were ambushed along the route. After the initial burst of fire, more teams sent in to evacuate the injured were also ambushed by armed terrorists. Incidentally, three of the four soldiers killed in this operation belonged to the famed 9 Para Special Forces (SF).
The operation to flush out terrorists was led by 63 Rashtriya Rifles when their Captain was severely injured. The 9 Para team had come in to evacuate the Captain but came under fire from the terrorists, believed to be four in number. Eventually, two of the terrorists were also killed in the operation while it is suspected that the other two managed to escape.
Army vehicles ambushed: December 2023
A month after the Bajimaal ambush, terrorists carried out yet another brazen attack in Poonch on 21 December.
Four soldiers were killed and three injured when terrorists ambushed two Army vehicles—a truck and a Gypsy. The vehicles were carrying personnel from the site of a cordon-and-search operation when they were attacked at Dhatyar Morh between Dhera Ki Gali and Bufliaz. The terrorists later released a gruesome video of the ambush.
The Army eventually picked up several villagers who they suspected of having helped the terrorists. Three civilians were tortured to death by the soldiers and a Court Martial proceeding in the case is still underway.
Civilian, VDG killed: April 2024
In the first major attack in Jammu region this year, a government employee working with the state’s social welfare department was shot dead by terrorists while coming out of a masjid after offering evening prayers in Kunda Top village in Rajouri’s Thanamandi on 22 April. He was the brother of a Territorial Army volunteer.
This was followed by a firefight that resulted in the death of a Village Defence Guard (VDG) in a remote village in Udhampur district on 28 April. The firefight broke out at Panara village of Basantgarh during a joint patrolling operation by the police and VDGs.
IAF convoy attack: May 2024
On May 4, a lone truck carrying IAF personnel headed to Sanai Top in Poonch’s Surankote area was attacked by four militants. One soldier was killed and four others injured in the attack.
Reasi attack & aftermath: June 2024
On 9 June, a bus carrying nearly 50 pilgrims fell into a gorge in the Pouni area of Reasi district. Though initially believed to be an accident, it was later found that terrorists had opened fire at the bus. The attack resulted in nine deaths and left another 33 injured.
Two days later, on 11-12 June, two terrorists and a jawan from the CRPF were killed in three separate encounters in Kathua and Doda districts.
Another attack on a joint check post at Chattergala on 11 June left six security personnel injured. A policeman was injured in a firefight with terrorists at the Kota top area of Gandoh the following day.
And on June 26, three terrorists, suspected to be affiliated to JeM, were killed in a gunfight in Doda district. Not long after that a policeman and five soldiers were injured in the gunfight in Bajaad village in the Gandoh area.
Doda ambush: July 2024
Four Army soldiers, including an officer, were killed in yet another ambush by terrorists in Doda district on 16 July.
While the Nagrota-based 16 Corps initially said the ambush in Doda took place during a joint operation with Jammu and Kashmir Police and that there was an encounter, an unverified video released by the terrorists showed the personnel were ambushed. The video was released by ‘Kashmir Tigers’, a suspected front of Pakistan-based terror group JeM.
Shivgarh-Akar encounter: August 2024
An Army captain and a terrorist were killed in an anti-terror operation conducted by security forces in the dense forests of the Shivgarh-Akar range of Doda on 14 August.
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