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A second clash between security forces and terrorists, not far from the Handwara house in northern Kashmir, where a bloody shooting killed 5 soldiers, appears to be part of a Pakistani attempt to rewrite the script for terrorism in Kashmir. a senior Hindustan Times security official said Monday night.
A few minutes earlier, two young men opened fire on CRPF jawans at a security checkpoint when they were busy observing some movement in the adjacent garden. Two Jawans were killed on the spot, the third succumbed to gunfire later. A civilian who was caught in the crossfire also died.
The attack is considered brazen not only by the way terrorists attacked security personnel at a checkpoint, but also for the time being.
In a nightly operation in another part of Handwara over the weekend, the security establishment had lost four soldiers, including battalion commander Colonel Ashutosh Sharma and a police officer. At the end of the 13-hour operation, two bodies of terrorists were found. One of them was said to be the chief commander of Lashkar, Haider, a Pakistani citizen.
Senior intelligence officials told the Hindustan Times that they had decided to keep an open mind about the number of terrorists involved in the Handwara encounter and to determine whether this group had recently infiltrated India.
Handwara falls along the infiltration route from the Leepa Valley.
Intelligence agencies had previously pointed to the terrorist launch platforms that had been activated in Pakistan-occupied Dudhnial, Sharda and Athmuqam, in Kashmir, through the Keran sector on this side of the Line of Control.
It was in the Keran sector in early April that a team of army commandos killed the entire infiltrated group of five terrorists in a melee battle. Five Special Forces commandos had given their lives in this operation carried out in heavy snow.
Counter-terrorism agents said between 25 and 30 terrorists are believed to have slipped through the safety net throughout the LoC in April alone.
The events of the past two days seem to indicate, said a senior security official, that the Kupwara district, particularly Handwara, would be the focus of action this summer.
This assessment also coincides with intelligence inputs suggesting that Pakistan-backed terrorist groups would target northern Kashmir. There would be some intermittent attacks elsewhere as well, such as the grenade that terrorists threw at CISF jawans at a power facility in Budgam. A CISF jawan escaped with some splinter wounds to his leg.
Pakistan has tried for years to give Kashmir terrorism a local face. There has been a renewed attempt at this makeover in recent months. According to an assessment presented to national security planners in late April, ISI had sent a message to the more than 100 foreign terrorists to stay low and allow local terrorists to face the battle with the security forces.
“Foreign terrorists are believed to be consolidating logistics, expanding the ground worker facilitation network and focusing on recruiting youth from Kashmir,” said the report, which was accessed by the Hindustan Times. Consequently, foreign terrorists had intensified efforts to radicalize youths in the Doda-Kishtwar-Ramban range to prepare them for recruitment.
The intelligence report had also forecast an increase in terrorist activities and attacks starting in April, after Ramzan started.
“Our assessment is that the next 10 to 14 days will be crucial … very crucial,” said a senior intelligence official, referring to contributions indicating an effort by the terrorist group Jaish-e-Mohammed to carry out simultaneous suicide attacks. addressed to the army. and central paramilitary bases.
