Director General of Jammu & Kashmir police Dilbagh Singh Monday said Pakistan based terror outfit, Jaish-e- Mohammad (JeM) is planning to target vital installations in Kashmir valley using their favourite terror tool- Improvised explosive device (IEDs) to inflict heavy casualties on the security forces and minimise its own losses.
Singh said that they have inputs that Jaish operatives were fabricating more IEDs. “Both our counter-terror and counter-infiltration grid has to stay alert. We have reports that JeM terrorists working at the behest of their handlers in Pakistan are developing more IEDs. We have alerted all our forces to thwart their nefarious design,” he added. Earlier, on May 28, the joint teams of security forces had intercepted a vehicle borne IED and detonated the same, preventing a repeat of Pulwama type terror strike.
Meanwhile, DGP on Monday also claimed several other terror outfits operating in Kashmir valley were facing acute shortage of weapons.
Addressing a small group of TV reporters here in the lawns of the police headquarters, DGP Dilbagh Singh said, “after eliminating five Hizbul Mujahideen terrorists in Reban area of Shopian four more HM terrorists were eliminated in Pinjoora area of the same district on Monday. He said in the last two weeks, the joint teams of security forces have so far eliminated 22 terrorists, which included 6 top commanders, in nine operations.
He said, out of these 22, 18 terrorists were active across three districts of Pulwama, Kulgam and Shopian and with their neutralisation the local residents are expected to heave a sigh of relief.
The DGP said that during the current year so far, 88 terrorists have been neutralised in 35 operations, 40 terrorist associates who were providing a direct support system to these terrorists were arrested. He said that 240 OGWs were also arrested for helping these terrorists by instigating law & order problems and many of them were booked under PSA.
Referring to the prevailing security situation in Jammu and Kashmir, Dilbagh Singh said Pakistan is attempting to push small groups of infiltrators inside the Indian territory from different routes along the LoC and the International border.
DGP said, for the first time we have noticed that the launching pads maintained by Pakistan remained active even during winter. “They did not wind up. The first terrorist group infiltrated the Keran sector on March 31. But our alert troops killed all of them,” DGP said. Responding to a question on the number of terrorists at launch pads along the Line of Control (LoC), Singh said: “There is an assessment that the number could be around 150-250 for Kashmir region and 125-150 for Jammu region.”
On the launch of new outfits like Tehreek Resistance Front (TRF), Dilbagh Singh described the same as an attempt to give Pakistan-sponsored terrorism a home-grown and local colour. Elaborating on it, he said that outfits like TRF are basically proxies of Lashkar and Jaish. Giving new names to terror fronts was an operation of camouflage to mislead the world that Pakistan has nothing to do with terrorism in Kashmir, he explained. “Reality on the ground is that terrorism in J-K is financed and sponsored by Pakistan,” Singh reiterated.
Commenting on the shortage of weapons faced by the terror outfits operating in Kashmir valley, DGP said, their handlers had assembled a large consignment of weapons in Kupwara via Keran sector and wanted to hand it over to the cadre of Tehreek Resistance Front (TRF) before further distributing the weapons to different terror outfits.
DGP claimed, in a joint operation, police teams from Handwara, Kupwara and Sopore busted the hideout and recovered the consignment of 22 weapons which also resulted in shortage of weapons. He said, now their border operatives are under pressure to ferry consignments of weapons from across the border. DGP said, “we have even received inputs that attempts were made to utilise the services of Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV's ) for airdropping of weapons but on ground zero we have not received any confirmed reports where we can say categorically that UAV's were used for airdropping of weapons”.
DGP also confirmed ground reports that a group of infiltrators had managed to infiltrate via Nowshera sector in Rajouri and in the past even another group had managed to infiltrate via International border before reaching Kashmir via road link.