NEW DELHI: As Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked officials to deploy the full strength of counter-terror apparatus against terrorists behind recent strikes in Jammu, law enforcement agencies are seeing the current jihadi escalation as an effort to open a new axis of violence and unrest in Jammu region.
On a day when PM Modi reviewed the uptick in terrorist violence with NSA Ajit Doval and others, J&K DGP R R Swain said counter-terrorism strategies were being tweaked to beat the “unique challenge” represented by 40-50 terrorists who infiltrated from Pakistan and were now holed up in the mountainous terrain of Jammu — where road connectivity and communication facilities do not match those in the flat-floor Valley, making it longer for security forces to respond to information.
The shift in security strategy includes returning to the force deployment pattern of the 1990s, with more personnel guarding mountain tops, resuming and intensifying counter-terror operations sector-wise and strengthening village defence committees in Jammu by refining their training and equipping them better to bust terror strikes.
Maintaining that attacks in Reasi, Doda and Kathua were a recent phenomenon in that particular axis, the J&K police chief said, “After the Valley is relatively pacified, terrorist outfits like Lashkar-e-Taiba have shifted attention to Jammu, activating different axes that run through Chenab, Tawi and Ujh-Ravi rivers. It is a determined effort on part of Pakistan-based elements to ratchet up things for reasons that include boosting morale of their fighters and creating inter-communal tension in a region with mixed population (by religion),” Swain told TOI over phone.
Citing the difficult topography and demography of areas within Jammu (with a 60:40 Hindu-Muslim population), Swain indicated the terrorists may be trying to target civilians from a particular community with a design to spark communal unrest, thus creating a law and order challenge. He, however, said the lack of separatist sentiment in Jammu, unlike how things were in Kashmir, was one less headache for security forces.
Reasi, where nine people died Sunday after terrorists fired on a bus, has 70% of contiguous mountainous terrain, which Swain said offered the hiding terrorists an advantage as there was invariably a time gap between information reaching the forces and follow-up action.
The plan now is to step up deployment in the mountain tops of Jammu to keep an eye on infiltration attempts and challenge the terrorists hiding there after crossing over from Pakistan, the DGP said.