New Delhi: Terrorist attacks aimed at the security forces in Jammu and Kashmir are getting more brazen — a group of terrorists is conducting ambushes against security personnel and videotaping them through body cameras, releasing the footage as part of their information warfare.
This has left the defence and security establishment concerned, ThePrint has learnt.
The group suspected to be behind these attacks remains elusive despite claiming the lives of several Army personnel.
The latest such video circulated on social media pertains to an attack on 4 August at Halan in Kashmir’s Kulgam that left three soldiers dead.
The video was released Sunday by the Jaish-e-Mohamed’s proxy arm ‘People’s Anti-Fascist Front’, seeking to negate the Srinagar-based Chinar Corps’ statement on the 4 August attack.
At 12.01 am on 5 August, the Chinar Corps tweeted that security forces had launched operations in the “higher reaches of Halan in Kulgam” on 4 August following “specific inputs regarding the presence of terrorists”.
“In exchange of firing with terrorists, three personnel sustained injuries and later succumbed. Search operations are continuing,” it added.
The same day, the People’s Anti-Fascist Front released a statement showing pictures of 3 AK assault rifles and one INSAS taken from the soldiers.
On Sunday, in a jazzed-up video, the terrorists claimed the attack was an ambush conducted after they received inputs that the Army was setting up a camp in the Halan forests. Following the inputs, the terrorists said, they sent in a scout team.
The video shows terrorists opening fire on a camp from close quarters, and one unidentified body is seen in the footage.
Defence sources said that, for operational areas, there are several Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) that are dynamic in nature and practice.
This, they said, was dependent upon the requirements of operational environment, area/terrain, available intelligence, time of day as well as time sensitivity of the intelligence.
Talking about the specific incident of 4 August, the sources said that there was no deviation from the Army’s set procedures to dominate the forward areas on the ridges by setting up temporary bases.
The sources said the “soldiers gave a good firefight but were apparently outnumbered and came under overwhelming fire”.
Earlier videos
Terrorists had first released similar body camera footage of an ambush in May this year, following an attack on an Army truck in Poonch that killed five soldiers.
The same group is also believed to be behind the ambush of a 9 Para team in May. Footage of this attack was released later as well.
Sources said the act of carrying a body camera is part of the terrorists’ strategy to use attacks orchestrated by them — where they are the initiator and have the element of surprise working for them — to further their propaganda.
Asked if the terrorists behind these attacks had been identified so far, the sources said it is believed there are two groups operating in the area and efforts are on to track them down.
(Edited by Sunanda Ranjan)
Also Read: Kashmir sees ‘drastic fall’ in terror recruitment after Army & police launch de-radicalisation drive