At a time when Pakistan is trying to push Terrorists into India, the Indian Army has deployed additional troops in both the hinterland and the Line of Control to check any attempts to increase in terror related activities.

The army, which has been maintaining constant pressure on terrorist infrastructure in the state since 2017, has managed to eliminate 56 terrorists in the last four months, including top terror commanders such as Sameer Tiger (Hizbul Mujahideen), Pakistan’s Mufti Waqas (Jaish-e-Mohammed) and Abu Hamas (Lashkar-e-Taiba).

The three-tier counter terrorist grid has been further strengthened with the deployment of additional forces which have been brought into the area, the sources said.

Bolstered by the success in operations along the Line of Control in the previous year, where more than 100 terrorists had been killed and eliminated while attempting infiltration, the force has been beefed up at the LoC as well, the sources added.

Last year, Indian Army had inducted more troops around the time of Amarnath Yatra and made a significant number of additional units deployed there to stay back and carry out counter-terrorist operations. On whether terrorist groups have been able to infiltrate into India in the recent times, the sources said there have been reports about two groups of terrorists -involving four to six persons each – who were able to sneak in through gaps.

“However, one of the groups was eliminated completely in an encounter when 13 terrorists were killed in a single day in South Kashmir in March,” the sources said.

Mail Today has learnt that reports filed by intelligence agencies suggest that there will be a heightened attempt to recruit local terrorists in large numbers to revive terrorism in the state. “There are reports that 30 to 40 locals from different parts of Kashmir have joined terror groups, but they are untrained and don’t last very long in the business. Most of them are more into posing and showing off with guns,” the source said.

Sources said the forces are also ready to tackle any attempt by the terror groups to carry out a sensational suicide attack on either the troops or the army bases.

In the near future, Army Chief General Bipin Rawat is also likely to visit Jammu and Kashmir to review the security situation there. Due to coordinated efforts between security forces led by the Indian Army last year, more than 200 terrorists were killed in different incidents. This was the highest number of kills by the security forces in the last seven to eight years.