In yet another military-style ambush of an Army column in Jammu and Kashmir’s Shopian district on Thusday, three soldiers were martyred while four others were injured.
According to a Times of India report, the number of terrorists in the violence-hit state as estimated by the security establishments has increased considerably in recent times.
The report cited officials saying that the Thursday attack was more of “an opportunity ambush” rather than “a well-planned one”, and was executed by terrorists with coordinated firing from different directions.
They further stated that it is possible that the intelligence inputs on which the security forces first went to one village and then were diverted to another could have been “planted” by terror sympathisers.
Army Chief Bipin Rawat reached Srinagar on Thursday evening to review the security situation in the aftermath of the ambush. Meanwhile, Northern Command said, “Such incidents only strengthen our resolve to continue relentless operations against Pakistan sponsored anti-nationals in Kashmir Valley.”
According to the report, officials said that fresh estimated indicate that there are around 450 terrorists in J&K, with most of them being “active” rather than dormant. Of them, 350 are located north of the Pir Panjal or in Kashmir.
“The number of local terrorists is also fast going up as compared to foreign ones from across border. There have been around 100 fresh recruitments in the militant ranks over the last one year,” an official was quoted by Times of India as saying.
It has also been found that overground workers of terrorist groups are also increasingly providing “intelligence” about the movement of forces in terrorism-hit areas, which has also seen rise in stone-pelters.
