Terrorists trained in high-altitude warfare pose new challenge in J&K

Terrorists trained in jungle and high-altitude warfare, who are prepared for a long haul, have emerged as a new security challenge in Jammu and Kashmir. According to security experts, dealing with this type of militancy is extremely difficult.

Thousands of troops, including para-commandos, have been locked in an endless gunfight deep inside the dense forests of Gadol in Kokernag area of south Kashmir’s Anantnag district for the past five days. The heavily armed terrorists, believed to be just two or three in number, are hiding in a tactically favourable location in the dense and steep forest.

It is the same group of militants who were involved in the killing of Colonel Manpreet Singh, Major Ashish Dhonchak, Deputy Superintendent of Jammu and Kashmir Police Humayun Bhat, and a soldier at Gadole forest in the Kokernag on Wednesday morning.

According to reports, the Army has fired hundreds of mortar shells, and targeted suspected terrorist hideouts with hi-tech equipment and dropped explosives using advanced drones. But so far, there has been no success in eliminating this group of terrorists.

In the twin border districts of Rajouri and Poonch in Jammu, the militants have used the same strategy by hiding in dense forest and inflicting heavy casualties on security forces in the last two years.

Five Army personnel were killed in a blast that was triggered by militants in a thickly vegetated area in Rajouri on May 5.

The incident took place at a time when the forces were engaged in a massive combing operation following an ambush on an Army truck in Bhata Dhurian, Poonch, where five more soldiers lost their lives in an ambush by militants on April 20.

In 2021, a major search operation, one of the longest in J&K’s history, was launched by joint teams of security forces in Poonch and Rajouri, which lasted for nearly three weeks. At least nine army soldiers lost their lives while battling a group of highly trained terrorists hiding in the forests.

However, the operation was later called off without any success as the army couldn’t trace the militants in the dense forests with natural caves.

A senior police officer involved in counter-insurgency operations said the changed tactics by terrorists indicates a new pattern being used by them to take on the security structure in J&K.

“It takes a long time to set up the logistics in treacherous terrain. As terrorists are on the run in cities, towns and villages due to relentless operations by security forces, alpine forests are becoming a new challenge. Dealing with this type of terrorism is extremely difficult,” he revealed.