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Army chief reviews anti-terror ops at joint security meet in Jammu
Impresses upon effectively plugging infiltration routes along IB & LoC, second visit to Jammu in less than three weeks
Amid spike in terror attacks across Jammu region, the Indian Army chief General Upendra Dwivedi on Saturday reviewed the prevailing security scenario south of Pir Panjal at a joint security review meeting with Jammu and Kashmir Police, paramilitary forces and intelligence agencies here at the police headquarters.
Dwivedi arrived Saturday afternoon around 2.10 pm and drove straight away to the police headquarters.
“During the meeting, the army chief was briefed upon ongoing anti-terror operations across the region by the formation commanders on the ground and strategies being adopted for the elimination of terrorists,” said an official privy to the closed door meeting, which started around 2.45 pm and lasted till 4.15 pm.
The chief of Northern Army command Lieutenant General MV Suchindra Kumar, general officer commanding of the Nagrota based 16 Corps, Lieutenant General Navin Sachdev, Jammu and Kashmir director general of police (DGP) RR Swain, ADGP law and order Vijay Kumar, ADGP Jammu Anand Jain besides top officers of the the Border Security Force, the Central Reserve Police Force, other paramilitary forces, intelligence agencies and officials of home and defence ministries, chiefs of Intelligence Bureau Tapan Kumar Deka and RAW Ravi Sinha attended the meeting, which was held at the police headquarters.
“Given a spike in terror attacks across Jammu, the army has started deploying around 500 para commandos and 3,000 troops in vulnerable areas,” the official informed, adding, “The army chief also impressed upon effectively plugging infiltration routes along the 198 km long international border and 744 km long Line of Control to check infiltration.”
The meeting also emphasised upon better coordination and removing operational flaws between various forces, he said.
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Dwivedi, who assumed the office of Indian Army chief in June this year, headed the strategic Northern Command for two years and has in-depth knowledge of the region’s topography and terror groups operating in Jammu and Kashmir.
It was the army chief’s second visit to Jammu in less than three weeks. Earlier, on July 3, he visited Poonch-Rajouri sector to review the security situation along the LoC. His latest visit to Jammu comes after four army soldiers, including Captain Brijesh Thapa, were killed during an encounter at Doda’s Desa forests on July 16.
He later held a brief meeting with the J&K lieutenant governor (L-G) Manoj Sinha at Raj Bhawan before returning to New Delhi at around 6 pm.
Sinha on Saturday said the security forces will adopt the “Kashmir model” to counter terrorism across Jammu region.
In the recent attacks the army convoys were ambushed by terrorists, who took a heavy toll on soldiers while the latter were not able to hit them. Nine army personnel, including a captain, were killed in two separate terror attacks in remote forest belts of Machedi in Kathua and Desa forest in Doda on July 8 and July 15.
Intelligence agencies strongly suspect that recent attacks in Kathua, Reasi, Doda and Udhampur districts may have had former Pak army regulars among terrorists, well trained in guerilla warfare tactics.
Jammu and Kashmir, according to a Supreme Court direction, has to go to assembly polls before September 30 this year.
“To ensure peaceful conduct of elections, which will be held after a gap of over six years, elimination of these terrorists is indispensable. Otherwise, the situation may go out of hand,” said a senior police officer, who declined to be named.
Around 40 to 50 terrorists are believed to have infiltrated via the international border in Jammu in the past two to three months.
“These terrorists have split into smaller groups of two to three terrorists. They need to be neutralised before the elections,” former DGP Dr SP Vaid said.
