Centre in a huddle over Jaish module; 15 militants sneak into India, intel reports
New Delhi: Alarm bells have started ringing among New Delhi’s security establishment amid reports that a group of about 15 militants has successfully managed to sneak into India from across the border in Jammu and Kashmir. Intelligence reports suggest that the militants, who crossed over in two separate batches over the last 10 days, are from the Jaish-e-Mohammed. Following this development, national security adviser Ajit Doval reviewed security deployment along the border at a crucial meeting on Thursday with top officials of key security and intelligence agencies.
Senior government sources said it was decided at the meeting to rush commandos from the Army’s elite special forces for deployment along the Indo-Pak border in Jammu and Kashmir. The special forces will be deployed at strategic location along the Line of Control in the Kashmir Valley to carryout “surgical operations” against militants trying to sneak into Kashmir.
It was also decided that more sophisticated weapons will be sent in for security forces guarding the border, sources added. “These weapons, including sophisticated machine guns, are not normally used by forces along the border but now that this group is suspected to have crossed over and reports of more infiltration bids in the coming weeks these measures are being put in place,” a senior intelligence official said.
During the meeting, the possibility of JeM trying to increase its presence in the Valley was flagged by officials who claimed this could be a dangerous trend.
“Jaish had fallen out of favour with the ISI for a long time but with the Pathankot incident things have changed. It seems the ISI is convinced that only Jaish can conduct major terror operation in India,” the official added.
Border guarding forces were specifically instructed after the meeting that they should keep their deployment and patrolling pattern along the border a closely guarded secret and keep changing it frequently. It is believed that terror groups are closely monitoring movement of troops along the border in a possible bid to target them as well. Even in the past, terror operatives backed by Pak Rangers have managed to cross over and attack and Indian security personnel.
“We have concrete information that terror groups have asked the sleeper cells in the Valley to provide them information about movement of troops and other details of vital installations of security forces. So we have directed them to remain extremely carefully in months ahead,” a home ministry official pointed out.
