Keeping in view the upcoming Amarnath pilgrimage in Kashmir in which a record number of people from across the country are expected to visit, the security forces are focusing on neutralising terrorists, particularly in south Kashmir amidst inputs that they might try to target the pilgrims.
Several Pakistani and local Kashmiri terrorists have been gunned down by security forces in encounters in the past few days.
Security forces have also built up pressure on Pakistan-backed hybrid terrorists and overground workers (OGWs) and a large number of them have been arrested across Jammu and Kashmir. Chinese pistols, grenades, and ammunition have been recovered from them.
Forest areas on the pilgrimage route are being scanned by security forces. Army, BSF, CRPF, SSB, J&K Police, and other agencies are involved in the job of providing safe passage to pilgrims.
J&K DGP Dilbag Singh is personally monitoring these operations to make the pilgrimage free of any terror incident.
Plans of terrorists to disrupt the Amarnath pilgrimage were first exposed last week when a 150 ft long oxygen-fed cross-border tunnel was detected by BSF in the Samba sector of Jammu. The tunnel was originating from a border post of Pakistan Rangers who have been pushing in trained terrorists through the international border.
A truck driver during interrogation is reported to have accepted that he transported two Pushto-speaking terrorists from the border area and dropped them in Jammu. These heavily armed terrorists were later neutralised here in an encounter near a strategic military station.
Terrorists in Kashmir were a few months ago starved of arms and ammunition and they would snatch rifles of policemen. However, now sophisticated guns, including M4s, night vision devices, and other ammunition left behind in Afghanistan by the US army have found their way into south Kashmir.
Security forces on Tuesday killed two terrorists in the Anantnag district at Kreeri (Dooru) which is close to the national highway leading to the Amarnath route. There were inputs that terrorists were involved in a recce of the mountainous pilgrimage route.
Earlier on 6 May, the killing of three Hizbul Mujahideen terrorists on the yatra route at Srichand Top in the Pahalgam area, which is the base camp of pilgrims, is being considered a big achievement of the joint team of Army, CRPF, and J&K Police.
DGP Dilbag Singh said that the 2 Rashtriya Rifles (RR) of the Army and J&K Police on Tuesday arrested four hybrid terrorists in Srinagar who were tasked with targetted killings.
Four Tokarev T54 Chinese pistols, 30 bullets, and other ammunition were recovered from the hybrid terrorists arrested from the Hamdania Colony area of Bemina Batamaloo in Srinagar.
The DGP said that the Srinagar Special Operations Group of police had specific information about the presence of a LeT Module which was active in the Bemina area of Srinagar and had been detailed from across the border to carry out targeted assassinations of non-locals and politicians in the city.
There was specific information that a hybrid module of LeT activated by Pakistani handlers and small arms had been delivered to the group for carrying out targeted hits.