After being paused overnight late on the evening of March 23, security forces, including the local police, the Border Security Force (BSF) and the Army, started searching for terrorists on the morning of March 24. Additional forces have been mobilised and a cordon had been put in most areas along the International Border (IB) in Hiranagar tehsil of Kathua district last evening. So far, however, the group of terrorists sighted by the local residents had evaded the hunt launched for them. Incidentally, the area where the terrorists were spotted on Sunday around 4.30 pm, is not very far away from the border.
Most reports by newspapers, TV channels and portals put the number of terrorists between five to six, and they quoted a lady Anita Devi (aged 48) whose husband was briefly taken as a hostage by them. Cooking using firewood gathered from nearby forest areas is still prevalent in some pockets here and it was a woodcutter who had chanced upon the terrorists. Reports suggested that the terrorists hiding in a forest nursery at Sanyal village had then taken him as a hostage. Later, his wife went towards the nursery but ran away on seeing the “bearded men’’ and was chased by one of them.
Despite warnings from the terrorist pursuing her that he will shoot her, the woman did not stop and raised an alarm. It was then that this information trickled down to the police and the BSF, who have presence in nearby areas. It appears the terrorist did not fire at the woman because firing shots in this area near border would have attracted attention towards the hiding men. Sometime later, the woman’s husband also managed to escape as he was told by the hiding terrorists to bring his wife back to them. The details regarding how it all happened remained unclear.
This area is the responsibility of 29 Division based at Pathankot which is under 9 Corps (Yol camp, Himachal Pradesh) of the Western Command headquartered at Chandimandir, around 325 km away. Elements of the Army units from some formations were also aiding the search operations in a jungle area and drones have also been deployed. Director General of Police (DGP) Nalin Prabhat, Inspector General of Jammu Bhim Sen Tuti and other senior officers had rushed to the area on Sunday evening itself.
A police team from the Special Operations Group (SOG) had come under fire on Sunday evening when it launched a search operation. The gunfight that ensued had lasted about 30 minutes with no reports of any casualties on either side as the terrorists managed to give the slip to their pursuers. Reinforcements from BSF and more police parties were pushed into the area but yielded no tangible results. The group of terrorists may have infiltrated from the area south of border, which is Pakistani territory, broadly Narowal area of Punjab.
This area has remained, despite official claims to the contrary, a preferred route of infiltration for terrorists who do not find it as challenging as Line of Control (LoC) manned by the Army personnel. Intelligence sources say that the terrorists infiltrating from this area are usually head to areas far north of border like Doda and beyond. Incidentally, all rivers, rivulets and nallahs flow from north (Indian territory) to southwards (Pakistan territory). As such, negotiating the terrain is not a very challenging task and infiltrators usually avoid harming the local population, preferring to move towards higher reaches via Malhar, or Seoj Dhar.
Some officials briefed the news agencies saying there were no casualties in the initial firing and the area was kept under tight security cordon throughout the night. Some intelligence agency inputs suggested that two groups of five-six terrorists each infiltrated on Saturday. They were apparently waiting in this area full of trees for some guide/s and to move further north. However, the chance sighting by the woodcutter caught them unawares but they seem to have preferred to dissolve in the dense forested area.
A seven-year-old girl sustained minor injuries when a stray bullet passed close to her arm and was shifted to a local hospital.
Giving details to some reporters, Anita Devi is quoted as saying that the terrorists held her husband at gun-point. She also said the incident occurred around 4.30 pm on March 23 and the terrorists were wearing commando dress and carrying rucksacks.
Incidentally, Kathua district border (mainly Kathua, Hiranagar and Ghagwal tehsils) have emerged as a major infiltrating route for Pakistan-based terrorists to reach the higher reaches of Udhampur, Doda and Kishtwar districts and further to Kashmir over the past year or so. During February, bodies of Shamsher (aged 37) and Roshan (aged 45) were found in Kohag area of Billawar tehsil. In March, the bodies of 15-year-old Varun Singh (or Baroon), his paternal uncle Yogesh Singh (32) and maternal uncle Darshan Singh (40) were found in the Ishu nullah in the remote Malhar area in the higher reaches of Kathua on March 8. They had gone missing on March 5 when they had left their home for attending a wedding ceremony.
It appears Pakistan has now decided to push in its terror proxies via this route and we may see more such chance encounters in the coming summer months.
