India exposes Pakistan's plan to sabotage first election in J&K after abrogation of Article 370

Foreign Secretary shared with envoys of US, Russia and other nations a dossier about November 19 Nagrota encounter

The Government on Monday shared a dossier with some of the foreign envoys in New Delhi, detailing Pakistan’s continued “terror campaign” against India, particularly in Jammu and Kashmir, ahead of the District Development Council (DDC) polls in the Union Territory.

Foreign Secretary Harsh Shringla had a meeting with the envoys of the United States, Russia, France, Japan and a few other nations and briefed them about the latest attempt by the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), a terrorist organization based at Bahawalpur in Pakistan, to carry out an attack in Jammu and Kashmir, albeit foiled by the security forces of India.

The other secretaries at the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) will similarly brief the foreign envoys based in New Delhi about Pakistan’s attempt to “sabotage the DDC elections” in the Union Territory of J&K of India, sources said.

The eight-phase DDC election is scheduled to commence on November 28 and is going to be the first electoral exercise in J&K after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government stripped the erstwhile state last year of its special status and reorganized it into two Union Territories.

Shringla conveyed New Delhi’s concerns to the foreign envoys about sustained efforts by Pakistan to destabilize the situation in J&K and to subvert local elections and democracy.

The JeM’s plan to carry out a major attack was foiled when its four terrorists, who had sneaked into India from the territory controlled by Pakistan, were killed in an encounter with the security forces on November 19. The terrorists were hiding in a truck and they had a three-hour-long encounter with the security forces near Nagrota on Jammu-Srinagar National Highway before all of them were killed.

Two policemen were injured during the encounter. A large number of weapons, including 11 AK-47 rifles, three pistols and 29 grenades, were recovered from the possession of the slain terrorists. The driver of the truck however managed to escape from the scene.

New Delhi suspects that the terrorists had come from Pakistan to India to carry out a major attack.

Shringla shared with the foreign envoys a dossier giving the details of the incident as well as the lists of the items and the munitions that were recovered from slain terrorists clearly indicating that they had sneaked into India from Pakistan. He also briefed them how the terrorists used an underground tunnel to cross the Line of Control (LoC) in Samba Sector of J&K.

A source said that Shringla shared with the foreign envoys how preliminary investigations by the police and intelligence authorities, markings on the recovered AK-47 rifles and other items had led New Delhi to believe that the terrorists belonged to the JeM in Pakistan. It was pointed out how the foiled attack was a part of Pakistan’s ongoing terror campaign against India in J&K. The Foreign Secretary noted that India had seen 200 terrorist attacks in the current year itself and 199 terrorists had been neutralized by the security forces.