Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Katra on April 19, to launch the much awaited Vande Bharat express connecting Kashmir valley with the rest of the country, the Union Home Minister Amit Shah is scheduled to visit Jammu next week to conduct a fresh ‘security audit’ and take measures to “step up” the fight against terrorism.
The Union Home Minister is also expected to visit forward areas along the International border after reviewing the prevailing security situation in the region.
Since March 23, a counter-terror operation has been going on across the Kathua district to neutralise the terrorists who have managed to infiltrate into the Indian territory from across the International border with Pakistan.
To prevent a repeat of similar infiltration attempts, the Indian Army had also backed the idea of enhancing the vigil and plugging the gaps along the International border with the aid of technical surveillance.
Some of the veteran commanders who remained at the helm of affairs in the Northern Command headquarters have also proposed to carry out a fresh ‘security audit’ along the Jammu frontier to further beef up the security grid in the absence of a counter-infiltration grid in the region.
So far, two foreign terrorists have been gunned down by the security forces, while four jawans of the Jammu and Kashmir police have sacrificed their lives to eliminate them.
Meanwhile, the ongoing operations were scaled up late Sunday evening after a group of three terrorists once again came in close contact with a family in the Rui village of Jathana, at least three kilometres from the previous encounter site. These terrorists may have managed to flee the Suffain village, taking advantage of the thick forest area on Thursday.
On Sunday night, three suspicious persons dressed in black robes entered the house of Shanker in Rui village and asked for water from an elderly woman.
“I was alone at home when they asked me for water. I went into another room out of fear after giving them water,” the elderly woman told reporters.
“Before leaving, they forcibly entered the kitchen and took away rotis and sabzi,” she added. The woman said they even offered her money — two Rs 500 notes — before leaving, which she refused.
The incident prompted the security forces to put the area under a night cordon. On the other hand, local police authorities have also detained six family members of an overground worker, Haji Latief, already serving a jail term for facilitating a targeted strike on an Army convoy in the Machhedi area of Badnota in Kathua on July 8, 2024. The police authorities are currently investigating whether these family members provided any logistics to the group of terrorists while they managed to escape from the Sanyal area of Hiranagar.
Separate search operations were also going in the Samba sector near the international border and the Udhampur-Reasi belt to sanitise the area, while the entire border belt has been put on alert in the backdrop of a high-profile visit of the Prime Minister to launch the train services from Katra on April 19.
