Kathua ambush: Security forces intensify search operation

Senior police and BSF officials held a high-level interstate security review meeting in Kathua on Thursday, even as search operations continued in several areas of Kathua-Udhampur-Doda belt of Jammu division, which saw an uptick in the militant attacks recently.

Officials from the police and BSF from J&K and neighbouring Punjab attended the meeting to review the security grid along the international border and deliberate on the fresh infiltration attempts and attacks in the border areas. The meeting also discussed the recent attack in the border area of Badnota in Kathua district, around 150 km from the town, where five army men were killed and five others injured. The officials maintained that new groups of foreigners have infiltrated from across the border and managed to reach the forests of Machedi in Badnota village that connects Basantgarh in Udhampur and Bhaderwah in Doda district.

“Infiltrators are using old routes and an old network of overground workers who were dormant for over two decades. This is a fresh challenge as deployment in these areas was thinned considering the peaceful circumstances,” said an official. As of now, officials claim that around 60 people, including a woman, have been summoned, questioned and detained in connection with the attack. The officials said they have zeroed in on a house where the attackers may have taken shelter before the attack.Meanwhile, search operations continued in the Kathua-Udhampur-Doda belt and additional forces were deployed along with the elite para commandos and drone surveillance to trace the infiltrators in thick forest areas with adverse terrain and harsh weather conditions.

The Jammu division has witnessed an increase in militant incidents over the past two years. Since October 2021, at least 45 armed forces personnel have been killed in the Jammu region in intermittent high casualty operations. Police and Army officials maintain that “foreign intruders” remain a challenge for the armed forces as the number of local militants is the lowest in the past 35 years. Of the 70 to 80 foreign intruders active across J&K, nearly 55 to 60 are active in the Jammu region.