Militants may have used tunnel

Violence unabted: Huge quantity of arms, ammunition recovered

Three terrorists who were killed in Samba in Jammu appear to have sneaked into India through a 80-metre-long tunnel along with huge quantity of arms and ammunition, including AK-47, Improvised Explosive Device (IEDs), grenades and GPS.

Investigators are also looking at whether the Samba attack bid has any links with Nagrota Army camp attack. BSF Director General K K Sharma told reporters that his force had inputs about possible infiltration bids from across the border after the army’s surgical strikes in September.

“After the operation got over at the Chamliyal BoP (border outpost), we checked the fence and there was no breach. Then Wednesday morning, we detected a small tunnel of the size of 2x2 metres. We had deployed ‘depth nakas’ across the fence and hence we could detect and neutralise the three militants,” he said.

The tunnel, which is about 75-80 metres from the International Border (IB) and about 35-40 metres from the fence, was found in an agricultural field. Sharma said BSF would take up the matter with Pakistan Rangers, but felt that it may not be of any help due to increased hostilities. The other side is not “getting in touch” for quite sometime now, he added.

Official sources said there is “enough proof” that the militants crawled through the tunnel to reach this side of the border.

 They said three AK-47 guns were recovered from the slain terrorists along with 20 AK magazines and 514 AK rounds. One pistol and 16 rounds were also recovered from them besides 31 grenades and 10 IEDs.

Half of the IEDs were liquid type, while the rest were chain IEDs, which are normally used to blow railway tracks. Sources said the terrorists had used GPS to locate the target.

A mobile phone, two big knives, three bags, two jackets, one lighter and three packets of dry fruits were among the items recovered from the terrorists.