Terror revisited Jammu-Pathankot National Highway on Thursday after a gap of more than five years bringing back memories of the intense gunfight in Keli Mandi area of Samba in the summers of 2008 for long hours.
Five people including a photojournalist from Jammu Ashok Sodhi were killed in the ‘act of terror’ on May 11, 2008. Two similar attacks took place along the same highway in the past as well and the modus operandi was also the same.
On May 14, 2002 a group of fidayeen hailing from Pakistan stormed family quarters in Kaluchak area on the outskirts of Jammu killing 31 people and injuring 47 others. The fidayeen had boarded a Himachal Pradesh State road transport bus between Samba and Vijaypur before storming the Kaluchak camp.
A similar attack took place on the 158 Territorial Army camp in Kali Bari area of Kathua on October 15, 2005 in which two jawans were killed. The Army personnel were caught unaware as they were attending routine physical training drill when the fidayeen stormed their camp. In the recent years, the majority of Army installations have been fortified and boundary walls have been raised with sentry positions located at strategic points but in this case the fidayeen, who are believed to have been conversant with the general topography of the area, chose to attack the 16 cavalry unit in Samba as it was easy for them to storm it in the absence of a boundary wall.
According to eyewitness reports, the fidayeen abandoned the truck which they had boarded in Hira Nagar area after reaching the National Highway. The police are not aware how these fidayeen managed to reach Samba Army unit after abandoning the truck. IG Jammu range Rajesh Kumar told reporters, after abandoning the truck the fidayeen boarded another vehicle and deboarded the same in front of the Army camp.
The fidayeen in all these attacks were dressed in combat uniform and infiltrated inside the Indian territory from across the International border which is approximately 10-12 km from the National Highway before mounting the attack. On Thursday soon after the news of fidayeen attack spread like wildfire, chaos prevailed in the area.
The traffic on both sides of the National Highway near Samba came to a standstill as a large posse of security forces cordoned off the area to neutralise the terrorists. At other vulnerable places, the Armymen were stationed with bulletproof shields and roadblocks. Random checking of vehicles was also carried out across several crossings in and around Jammu and various check-points have come up after high alert was sounded to prevent similar strike.
The inter-State buses were halted at Jammu and those approaching Jammu were halted at lakahanpur. Other passenger vehicles and supply trucks were also stranded at different places along the highway adding to the miseries of the commuters.
The shops and other establishments along the highway remained shut and life remained paralysed for about 10 hours. On the other hand the local residents in Hira Nagar and Samba questioned the role of the police check-points on the Highway while blaming the attack on the laxity displayed by the security forces. The three tiers of the security grid were completely exposed as fidayeen managed to storm the police station and an Army camp in a span of one hour without facing any resistance.