Killing of a top Pakistani terrorist tasked to attack convoys on Kashmir’s highways during the Independence Day celebrations and death of a toddler in a grenade attack at the house of a BJP leader in the LOC town of Rajouri has put the security forces on toes across Jammu and Kashmir where intelligence reports have warned of more terror attacks.
A major tragedy has been averted. They were planning a big attack along the national highway ahead of Independence Day said Vijay Kumar, inspector general of police.
In another incident this afternoon, a CRPF head constable and a civilian were injured when terrorists hurled a grenade at the security forces near the State Bank of India in north Kashmir’s Sopore.
After these incidents, security forces are not leaving anything to chance and on Friday launched a massive frisking and search operation across Jammu and Kashmir where individuals and motor vehicles were being searched and frisked.
The encounter that broke out in south Kashmir’s Kulgam after a BSF convoy was fired upon by terrorists on the Jammu—Srinagar highway on Thursday afternoon ended this morning with the killing of a Pakistani terrorist identified as Usman of the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) outfit but another terrorist is believed to have escaped. Usman was an associate of JeM’s top Pakistani
commander Lamboo alias Adnan who was recently killed in an encounter. It confirms Pakistan’s involvement in the attack on BSF convoy, said IGP (Kashmir) Vijay Kumar.
What was worrying was that the Pakistani terrorist was carrying deadly rocket propelled grenades (RPGs), rocket launcher and grenades that were recovered from the encounter spot.
Vijay Kumar said it was after a long time that Pakistani terrorists used RPG. “A major tragedy has been averted before Independence Day. Congratulations to CRPF, Army and Police”, he tweeted.
Two security forces personnel and two civilians were injured during the encounter. Kumar said that the police had input that "terrorists were planning an attack on the national highway on Baramulla-Srinagar road or Qazigund-Pantha Chowk. So, the police and security
forces were ready.
This shows how good the response of the security forces has been that there was retaliation and the terrorist was not allowed to flee," Kumar told reporters in Srinagar.
In another incident that has triggered tension in the Rajouri town of Jammu, terrorists tossed a grenade at the residence of district BJP chief Jasbir Singh where his 3-years nephew was killed and six others injured. Jasbir Singh himself received serious injuries.
Top police and Army officers immediately reached the spot and launched massive search for the terrorists.
The border districts of Rajouri and Poonch in Jammu were made terrorism-free in 2003 and after 18 years fresh efforts are being made by Pakistan based terror outfits to revive militancy in Jammu. Several incidents of recovery of caches of arms and ammunition have been reported during the past few days. Two persons were arrested earlier this week in the LOC town of Mendhar and cash amounting over Rs.25 lakhs meant for revival of terrorism was seized from their possession by a joint team of the police and Army.