Pak infiltration ops shifting to Jammu border: NIA report

40 IN 3 YEARS Agency finds international border, not LOC, route of choice for militants who carry out attacks in Valley

NEW DELHI: A National Investigation Agency (NIA) probe has revealed that in the last three years over 40 terrorists were pushed by Pakistan into India through the international border in Jammu, and then transported deep into the Kashmir Valley to carry out targeted strikes, said multiple government, intelligence and security officials familiar with the matter.

NIA has drawn its conclusion about the number of infiltrators after interrogating half-a-dozen overground workers (OWGS) — a nomenclature used by the J&K police for civilians who help militants — linked to Pakistan-based terror group Jaish-e-mohammad (JEM) — who were arrested over the past year, the officials added.

“NIA submitted a detailed report to the Union home ministry last week, underlining the fact that Pakistani terrorist outfits were no longer solely using the Line of Control (LOC), the de-facto border between the Valley and the Pakistan-occupied-kashmir (POK) to infiltrate terror operatives, and they were using the international border as well. That as many as 40 terrorists have used the international border to enter India is particularly alarming,” said a home ministry official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

“In its report, NIA said that

OWGS, during their interrogation, disclosed that they picked up over a dozen groups, consisting of three to four terrorists, mainly from Jaish, from the Samba sector’s Bei Nullah area in the last two to three years. In one case, a group of Jaish terrorists after infiltrating from the international border attacked the Nagrota army installation in November, 2016 in Jammu. In another case, in September this year, the Jammu and Kashmir police intercepted three terrorists in Jhajjar Kotli and the whole group was neutralised. The rest of the groups were taken to the Tral area of the Valley from where they scattered to other parts,” the official added.

An NIA official, who asked not

to be named, confirmed that a report on infiltration through the international border has been sent to the home ministry.

“Since the OWGS were regularly talking about picking up terrorists from the Jammu area, we decided to alert the government about it in the form of a report. The NIA report is just not a compilation of the interrogation reports, but has used mobile phone data to confirm the location of the OWGS when they claimed to pick up the groups of terrorists. The OWGS were taken to the spot from where they picked up the group of terrorists in the Bei Nullah area, and their journey onward to the Valley was tracked,” the official added.