The Army has issued strict instructions to its troops guarding the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu & Kashmir and vital installations, including their camps, from using mobile phones as their faces are lit up during night presenting an easy target to snipers to shoot them. The direction came after a soldier on sentry duty of 42 Rashtriya Rifles in Tral last week was killed reportedly after he used his mobile phone at night. One other soldier was wounded in the sniper attack.
Moreover, the Pakistan Army and ISI backed militants have launched “two-front” attempts to smuggle in weapons in huge quantities besides ultras through the LoC and International border. The two-pronged strategy has seen militants trying to smuggle in weapons from North Kashmir across from across the LoC and through Jammu and Punjab from across the International Border.
As regards the instructions about mobile phones, officials in security establishment said here on Saturday the sentries are generally posted in a shift of two to three hours to keep them fresh and alert. The Army has earlier too issued instructions as part of standard operating procedure asking the soldiers to refrain from using their phones.
In the latest incident, the militants had sneaked within a range of 200 metres or so and when the soldier responded to the mobile phone call thereby lighting up his face he was shot, sources said. The militants had used telescope fitted rifle for the attack, they added.
Alarmed over this critical lapse, the Army reiterated its instructions about the use of mobile phones, said officials, adding the terrorists are desperate to attack army camps in the coming days. At least 14 such attacks on Army camps have taken place this year so far. However, only two such attacks claimed casualties. These included six soldiers killed when the militants stormed an Army installation in Sunjwan near Jammu earlier this year and one soldier killed in the sniper attack on the Rashtriya Rifles camp last week.
While Army Chief General Bipin Rawat earlier this week said the Army is verifying reports about two sniper groups of three to four trained militants each of Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) infiltrating into the Kashmir Valley in September, security forces are not taking any chances and have launched a hunt for these two groups. They reportedly carried out three attacks on security forces camps, including the Rashtriya Rifles incident within a spate of five to six days last week.
The security establishment, moreover, is concerned over militant handlers sitting across the border in Pakistan waging a “two- front” war against the Indian security agencies in Jammu & Kashmir. Elaborating upon this aspect, officials said the Pakistan Army and ISI are pushing in heavily armed militants from across the LOC in North Kashmir and the International Border from Jammu region.
Coupled with infiltration bids, the handlers are pushing in weapons especially AK-47s through smugglers from International Border through Punjab and Jammu and special weapons including MI-4 rifles for precision shooting akin to sniper firing from LOC, they said.
It is also suspected that the current batch of ‘sharp shooters’ or ‘snipers’ active in the Kashmir Valley, infiltrated through the International border in Jammu and reached Kashmir via road link.
From Jammu these ‘snipers’ were ferried to Kashmir valley via ‘mobile bunkers.’
These mobile bunkers are generally created inside trucks ferrying construction material to Kashmir valley via 300 km long Jammu Srinagar National Highway.
To facilitate easy transport of these specially trained infiltrators a large army of silent over ground workers (OGW) are also active in the State. Every OGW module is assigned a particular task to ensure hassle free travel of these high profile infiltrators. The most crucial module in the long chain is deployed close to the International Border to escort these infiltrators to their safe hideout before embarking on a final journey.
The entire security grid in the region was alarmed in the second week of September 2018 following arrest of Mohammad Iqbal of Pakharpora, Budgam and Riaz Ahmad of Hajin, Pulwama. The duo were picked up by the State police from an encounter site near Jhajjar Kotli on September 12, 2018.
During their interrogation truck driver and his accomplice had revealed that they had been helping infiltrators to reach Kashmir Valley via Jammu after picking them from near the International Border.
According to them at least four to five batches of infiltrators were ferried in trucks to Kashmir Valley via the same route.
Even the National Investigation Agency (NIA), which is carrying out the probe in the case, had recently visited forward border areas across Hiranagar sector and searched houses of some of the local villagers to track down the possible route of infiltration used by the heavily armed infiltrators.
Meanwhile, Border Security Forces (BSF) authorities of Jammu frontier have denied reports of successful infiltration in the region but NIA authorities insist three terrorists killed near Jhajjar Kotli encounter had infiltrated through the International border in Hiranagar sector.
This year nearly 200 terrorists were killed so far either while trying to infiltrate or in encounters in the hinterland.