Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Apr 21: A massive manhunt has been launched by the Indian army in the hills and forests around the site where five soldiers were killed and another grievously wounded, reportedly in grenade attack, in Poonch sector in Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday.
The investigation into the suspected terror attack was taken over by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and a team of the NAI officials on Friday arrived at the spot ad surveyed the area where the army vehicle was subjected to terror attack as after a few months of relative lull, Poonch-Rajouri sector has reported heightened terror activities.
Officials said the NIA team visited the site, which has been sealed after the attack. Security agencies are investigating the nature of the blast. Initial reports suggested the militants managed to hit the fuel tank with a grenade explosion, which sparked a major fire on the vehicle resulting in the deaths. Charred bodies of the soldiers were found near the vehicle. However, the exact cause of the fire has not been officially established.
Security agencies which initially said three to four militants participated in the attack, after surveying the area suspect the involvement of at least six to seven terrorists. Officials said shells of 7.62 mm steel core bullets, capable of piercing through bulletproof armour, were recovered from the attack site.
Experts from the forensic science laboratory and the bomb disposal squad visited the spot and collected the casings of the bullets fired by terrorists. Some of the casings were of steel core bullets with ‘71-China’ markings on them, sources added.
Sources among the security forces and the Jammu and Kashmir Police said they believe that the terrorists had laid an ambush near Tota Gali on the Bhimber Gali-Surankote-Poonch Road. They pointed out that the road where the terror attack took place has hills covered with dense forests on one side and a deep gorge on the other side. Going by the trajectory of bullets hitting the vehicle on all sides, besides the fuel tank, sources said the terrorists appear to have been taking position in the forests on the hillside and in the gorge on the other side of the road.
The Army vehicle was on its way from Basooni in Balakote sector to Sangiote towards Surankote side as part of the country-insurgency patrol. As it reached near Bhatta Durian, nearly 8 km from Bhimber Gali, the terrorists hiding in the forests and the gorge started firing on the vehicle, the sources said. One of them appears to have fired on the driver from the hillside, while another threw a grenade at the vehicle, they added.
“More than one dozen bullets were fired at the Army vehicle from three sides,” officials said. However, it’s not clear why the vehicle was on a solitary drive in the area despite heightened militant activities in the region.
Security agencies suspect that the attackers were hiding in the forest area and opened fire from a distance. The security forces launched searches in the area on Thursday evening and the multiple operations continued in the region on Friday. “Drones were put to service by the Army to spot the attackers. Sniffer dogs were also fanned out to trace the route of the attackers,” officials said.
The Army and security agencies have received inputs about the presence of 6-7 terrorists operating in two groups in the Rajouri-Poonch sector near the area where the incident took place yesterday,” defence officials said. “Multiple special forces teams along with drones and surveillance helicopters have been rushed to the area to help carry out search and destroy ops there,” they added.
It is being suspected that the terrorists belong to the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and had crossed the Line of Control (LoC) to enter Jammu and Kashmir from Pakistan. At present, the Indian Army is trying to trace the route of their entry into the area. The Indian Army is also conducting extensive searches in areas where natural formations like caves and rocks are present.
“More details are being ascertained about their route of ingress into the area. The search is being conducted extensively in the area where multiple cave-type natural structures are present,” defence officials told the media.
The Pir Panjal valley, comprising Rajouri and Poonch districts, are close to the Line of Control (LoC). Four civilians were killed on January 1 when militants attacked a village in Rajouri’s Dangri area. The attackers remain untraced so far. In 2021, nine soldiers died in a major ambush by militants in the Bhatta Durian and Chamrel forests.
The attack comes at a time when the Jammu & Kashmir administration is preparing to host a meeting next month of delegates from G20 nations. Union Home minister Amit Shah chaired a major security review meeting in New Delhi on April 13 to finalise the security for the G20 event.
Meanwhile, Director General of Police Dilbagh Singh, Additional Director General of Police, Jammu, Mukesh Singh along with DIG Rajouri-Poonch range, Dr Haseeb Mughal, besides senior police officers from both Rajouri and Poonch districts also visited the spot.
Thursday’s attack comes amid discussions between the military leadership and the government on a proposal to withdraw Rashtriya Rifles troops from the Valley hinterland and let the CRPF fill in the gap. With an RR sector moving to eastern Ladakh earlier, there has already been a partial thinning of troops in this area, sources said.
In January, Army chief General Manoj Pande had said while the counter-insurgency grid in the Valley is strong, there have been instances of infiltration attempts in areas south of the Pir Panjal range. The Rajouri sector, where the attack took place Thursday, is south of the Pir Panjal range.
He said the ceasefire agreement reached between India and Pakistan in February 2021 is holding well along the Line of Control and western borders, even as cross-border support to terrorism and terror infrastructure continues to remain an issue.
Thursday’s attack came 18 months after terrorists killed nine soldiers in the Bhata Durian and Chamrel forests in October 2021 as sources said the border districts of Poonch and Rajouri, after a spell of peace, have started reporting the movement of terrorists.
