60 Pak terrorists ‘active’ in J&K

With the involvement of The Resistance Front (TRF), a proxy terror group of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), having been confirmed in orchestrating the Pahalgam attack, sources say around 60 foreign terrorists belonging to the LeT, Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) and the Hizbul Mujahideen are active in J&K.

Of these, 35 belong to the LeT alone, while around 20-odd are from the JeM and three from the Hizbul Mujahideen, the sources said. They further said the 60-odd foreign terrorists had been active in J&K since early this year.

The security forces had last month neutralised a foreign terrorist in Kupwara, indicating that the inflow of Pakistan-based ultras was continuing in J&K.

Islamabad denies its involvement

New Delhi: A day after a terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir left 26 dead, Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif on Wednesday claimed Islamabad had no involvement in the incident. Speaking to a Pakistani news channel, Asif said, “We have absolutely nothing to do with it. We reject terrorism in all its forms and everywhere.” Additionally, Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson expressed concern over the loss of lives, stating: “We are concerned at the loss of tourists’ lives in an attack in Anantnag district… We extend our condolences to the families of the deceased and wish the injured a speedy recovery.” tns

According to highly placed sources, inputs on movement of foreign terrorists in the Kashmir valley as well as the Jammu region were available with the security forces, yet the dastardly attack took place in Pahalgam, indicating an intelligence failure. In Bandipora last month, four terrorists were nabbed by paramilitary forces and a huge cache of arms and ammunition was recovered from them.

The sources said in February, around 260 rounds of ammunition were seized from Reasi in Jammu, which had seen a terror attack on a bus carrying pilgrims in June last year, leading to the death of nine persons. Four rockets too had been recovered from there, the sources added.

The security forces had also seized a few improvised explosive devices (IEDs) from Pulwama and Shopian in February.

Counter-insurgency officials said foreign terrorists mainly target outsiders and migrants, which was quite visible in the Pahalgam attack, and there was a need to launch stronger operations to nullify their growing threat. The attack coincided with the visit of US Vice-President JD Vance to India.