The garrison town of Akhnoor, 32 kms from Jammu remained on tenterhooks since early Thursday morning following high alert sounded in the area after some of the sentries deployed on duty late Wednesday night had observed some suspicious movement near an Army unit located close to the main market in the area.
The traffic on the route connecting old bridge with Jammu remained suspended for long hours while small groups of Army jawans were deployed on ground zero to carry out search operations in the entire area.
Since large number of vital Army installations are located in the area the Army authorities sanitised almost each and every inch in and around their installations to rule out the presence of any suspected person in the close vicinity.
Earlier, Akhnoor, which houses 10 Div Headquarters, has witnessed fidayeen strikes by highly trained foreign terrorists.
In July 2003 security ring of the top brass of the Northern command headquarters was breached when a fidayeen, believed to have been neutralised, lobbed a grenade towards senior Army officers present inside the army camp to take stock of the situation. A Brigadier rank officer was killed while top officers received injuries in the surprise attack.
According to Defence spokesman, due to alertness of army personnel at Akhnoor late wednesday evening a major terror strike was averted on sensitive and soft targets in Akhnoor”.
The Defence spokesman said, “during area sanitisation process, the security force utilising the dog squad recovered one fully installed IED, two mines, Army accouterments and other incriminating stores”. The IED was later blasted by the Army authorities under their supervision.
Following high alert in Akhnoor the roads connecting the garrison town with Jammu and nearby areas were kept in a state of high alert and local police and paramilitary were deployed to carry out random searches and frisking.
Meanwhile, calm prevailed along the line of Control in Rajouri and Poonch on Thursday.
The senior Army officers also paid last respects to Naik Mahendra Chemjung, who was martyred on the line of Control (loC) in Bhimber Gali, sector in J&K on 03 October 2017.
“In a solemn wreath laying ceremony organised at Rajouri, wreaths were laid on behalf of GOC-in-C Northern Command, GOC 16 Corps, and GOC 25 Division. Officers and all other ranks saluted and also bid farewell to the gallant soldier. Naik Mahendra Chemchung was a native of Nepal and is survived by his wife and one son” Defence spokesman said.