Five soldiers including two Army Captains were killed in a gunfight on Thursday, 23 November, near the Bazimal area of the heavily forested Kalakote region of Rajouri district close to the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K).
The gun battle appears to be a reprise of a trend that’s been noticeable over the past two to three years, as the theatre of high-visibility attacks shifts away from the Kashmir Valley, and opens amidst the craggy, forested hillside terrain of Jammu, where militants are taking advantage of the thick green cover, and the area’s jagged topography.
Police sources told The Quint that the deceased soldiers have been identified as Captain MV Pranjal of 63 Rashtriya Rifles (RR) from Mangalore, Karnataka; Captain Shubham from Agra, UP; Havaldar Abdul Majid from Poonch; Lance Naik (L/Nk) Sanjay Bisht from Nainital, Uttarakhand; and paratrooper Sachin Laur from Aligarh, UP.
Officials said that additional reinforcements including counter-insurgency units from J&K Police, Army, and paramilitary forces have been mobilised.
Militants Sought Food From Locals
On 21 November, Sarfaraz Ahmad, a young nomad from the tribal community of Gujjars, was grazing his cattle in the forested areas of Bazimal, when the two strangers accosted him, demanding some eatables. “As per Sarfaraz, he rebuffed their requests and was beaten by the men,” a police source told The Quint. “Later, he narrated the whole episode to the security forces.”
Sarfaraz identified the men as the same individuals whom security forces suspected had infiltrated the LoC earlier this month. The two infiltrators had been openly roaming around in the Bazimal village, and were also caught on camera footage accessed by the Police, sources said.
The CCTV grab of the alleged militants shows them talking to a few villagers in Bazimal. The men appear to have covered themselves in blankets.
“They first appeared at the house of a local religious personality. After establishing their presence, security forces launched a combing operation in the area. As the searches were on, the terrorists who were hiding on a hilltop fired at the forces,” sources said.
Mastermind of Previous Attacks Killed
The responsibility for the attack has been claimed by People’s Anti Fascist Front (PAFF), a militant outfit affiliated with Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM).
Official sources said that they aren’t sure about the total strength of militants held up at the site. “The fire is coming from a different direction,” they said.
On Thursday, however, police sources confirmed to The Quint that two Pakistani militants were killed during the operation at the encounter site in Kalakote, but identified one of the assailants as being associated with Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).
Officials said they could only identify one of the two slain militants.
“His name is Quari. He is a Pakistani national and a highly-ranked terrorist leader of LeT group. He has been active in the Rajouri-Poonch area along with his group for the past one year. He is also believed to be the mastermind of the previous attacks in the Dangri and Kandi areas. He was sent to revive terrorism in the region,” the police sources added.
Changing Dynamics Growing Starker
Ever since the Union government abrogated Article 370, and split Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories, there’s been a gradual rebalance in the overall dynamics of militancy in the erstwhile State, with the mountainous areas on the South of Pir Panjal (Rajouri and Poonch) experiencing more high-impact activities than Kashmir.
Just last week, security forces killed a Pakistani militant during search operations in the Behrote area of Rajouri. In September earlier this year, two militants and a soldier were killed in the Narla area of Rajouri. In August, in the Dewar sector of Poonch district, the Army preempted an infiltration attempt near the LoC and killed a Hizbul Mujahideen militant during the encounter.
In April, five Army Personnel with the Rashtriya Rifles (RR) unit were killed when militants near the Bhimber Gali area of Poonch district waylaid their vehicle, taking advantage of rains and low visibility.
A few days later, another big attack took place in the Kandi forest area of Rajouri district. The army units were conducting a combing operation in the area when militants hiding inside a cave detonated an improvised explosive device.
Earlier this year, militants killed seven civilians including two children in Dhangri village in Rajouri in one of the deadliest attacks in the Pir Panjal region in years. The attack triggered communal polarisation in the region, with the government moving to reboot the controversial Village Defence Guards (VDG) programs in the area.
Casualties Pile-up In Jammu
In total, since January this year, 47 people have been killed including 15 security forces personnel and 23 militants, in the three volatile districts of Jammu.
By contrast, only 10 security personnel have died in the other districts, which clearly highlights how the South of Pir Panjal region is fast emerging as a new arena of conflict in J&K.
The Bazimal gunfight shows how militants are able to tap into hilly areas and jungles to wage deadly attacks on the security forces in the region.
Pakistani Mobile Networks Aiding Militancy
Observers say that it is beyond any doubt that the Pakistani establishment is making clear attempts to revive militancy in the Jammu region so that the security dominance inside the Kashmir valley is slackened.
“This is a huge strategic shift and it is clearly visible. Rajouri and Poonch regions now account for 40 percent of the total security-related casualties that have taken place in J&K this year,” said Zafar Choudhary, a senior editor and author based in Jammu.
Choudhary said that there was a sense of fatigue in Kashmir due to which the militant handlers are unable to orchestrate any serious subversive activities in the region. “The security preparedness in Kashmir since 2017 appears to be the best in the last 30 years. It is to dilute this success that militant groups are seeking to make inroads into the Jammu region,” he said.
There are around 50 villages across both sides of the LoC in these districts with a combined population of 20,000.
Security forces say that militants are taking advantage of the fact that some of these areas are able to access networks from Pakistani service providers, which makes it easier for the handlers to build liaison with former contacts on this side of the border and co-ordinate attacks.
However, Choudhary insists that this isn’t the case, arguing that it is the residents on the Indian side that are increasingly responsible for supplying intelligence to security forces.
“The residents of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir were initially inclined to support militancy but since the mid-2000s, that enthusiasm appeared to have waned as people there gained exposure to global realities,” he said. “But now it looks like this positive trend is reversing and the people from that side are again showing interest in fomenting terrorism across the border.”
(Shakir Mir is an independent journalist. He tweets at @shakirmir. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for them.)
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