Spurt in infiltration attempts, security agencies on toes

Arjun Sharma

Jammu, June 4

With a spurt in infiltration bids and terror activities in Jammu and Kashmir ahead of the annual Amarnath pilgrimage, alarm bells have rung in the security establishment which conducted a successful G-20 summit in Kashmir recently.

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The security forces have, so far, not been able to eliminate the group behind the attack at Dhangri village in Rajouri in January killing seven civilians, ambush on Army truck in Poonch on April 20 killing five soldiers and an encounter in Kandi area of Rajouri on May 5 in which five special forces jawans were killed.

Even as the search for active terrorists continues in Rajouri and Poonch, Military Intelligence has received inputs which suggest there would be increase in infiltration by Pakistani terrorists specifically from the Line of Control (LoC) in the coming weeks. The Army has already foiled many attempts of infiltration by ultras in different areas of J&K.

Three terrorists who were trying to infiltrate from across the LoC in Poonch on May 31 were arrested along with huge quantity of arms and narcotics after a brief gunfight. They were in possession of a 12 kg IED.

On June 1, Border Security Force (BSF) shot dead a Pakistani intruder near the border fence in Samba district. Although no weapons or narcotics were found from the infiltrator, ultras have, in the past, used decoys to test the alertness of security forces at borders.

The intrusion bids are being taken seriously by the security forces and intelligence agencies as the Amarnath pilgrimage will begin from July 1 and continue till end of August.