JAMMU / NEW DELHI: A two-day search for the infiltration route of the four Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorists killed in a shootout with security forces on the Jammu-Srinagar highway last Thursday has culminated in the discovery of a 150 meter long road. Cross-border underground tunnel lined with sandbags with “Karachi markings”.
The newly dug tunnel, which starts about 70 meters from the line of control (LoC) and is 1.5 m wide, gives credit to intelligence reports that Pakistan It has been using the underground route to push terrorists into Kashmir.
DGP Dilbag Singh, who had revealed in September that security forces were looking for “underground Pakistani routes along the infiltration network,” told reporters at Samba on Sunday that the tunnel unearthed by BSF was possibly one of several used by terrorists to enter the region.
Pre-fed GPS locations on a communication device found in one of the killed terrorists helped security forces identify the tunnel’s coordinates, sources said.
The tunnel originates from the side from the Chak Bhura, Rajab Sahid and Asif Sahid border posts via the LoC and exits to the Regal border post on the Indian side. The terrorists entered the tunnel through the Chak Bhura end at around 8.15 p.m. on November 18, according to the times found on the GPS device.
Travel time from one end to the other was about 10 minutes, an intelligence official said.
The MPS2505 device carried by the terrorists has multiple options for tracking its coordinates, including periodic location intervals. The coordinates had to be deciphered.
“We found more than a dozen locations entered into the device. We have now also traced the route the terrorists took on foot to reach the highway, where they boarded a truck arranged by contacts in Samba. They had traveled 5-6 hours to foot, “said a J&K police source.
DGP Singh noted that the tunnel had been drilled and reinforced for reuse. “This shows our suspicion that Pakistan is bent on disturbing the peace,” he said, reiterating Prime Minister Narendra ModiLast Friday’s statement that the Pakistan-based group Jaish had started sending terrorists specifically to attack the first District Development Council polls in J&K.
The four Jaish terrorists killed in the Nagrota encounter were traveling in a truck loaded with 11 AK-47 rifles, three pistols, 29 grenades (excluding those thrown at security personnel), some RDX, SOS medications and an unspecified number of communication devices.
DGP Singh, BSF Inspector General (Jammu) NS Jamwal and IGP (Jammu) Mukesh Singh jointly inspected the infiltration point after the tunnel was discovered on Sunday.
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