While a MI helicopter, drones, and sniffer dogs were used in a massive manhunt for the perpetrators of the attack on security personnel, at least 12 people were detained on Friday for questioning in relation to the deadly ambush of five army soldiers in the dense forest area of Bata Doriya, in Poonch, Jammu and Kashmir.
According to officials, the security forces are questioning those who have been apprehended at multiple levels to determine the identity of the terror organisation, which is reported to have been active in the area for more than a year and likely includes a sniper as well.
A day after the assault, Dilbag Singh, the director general of the Jammu and Kashmir police, and Mukesh Singh, the additional director general of police, were camped in the nearby Rajouri district to supervise the inquiry. The two officers went to the location of the incident as well.
As the National Investigation Agency (NIA) is likely to take over the case, a team led by an officer with the rank of Deputy Inspector General was also present.
Although neither the Army nor the J&K Police has released an official statement, reports remarked that the inquiry has so far pointed to the involvement of three to four unidentified terrorists who are believed to have utilised 7.62 mm steel core bullets made in China.
The forensic science laboratory and bomb disposal teams examined the scene on Friday morning and collected armour-piercing bullets with marks that read ’71,’ which are believed to have been manufactured at a Chinese facility, per sources.
The assailants may have been concealed on both sides of the road (in a heavily forested area on one side and a gorge on the other) based on the trajectory of the gunfire and the angles at which the Army vehicle was hit from all sides.
The national highway between Bhimber Gali and Jarran Wali Gali was closed to vehicular traffic for the second day in a row.
The perpetrators of the attack, according to the officials, are thought to have lived in Rajouri and Poonch for more than a year and had sufficient knowledge of the difficult terrain. They confirmed that the region is a hotspot for the Jammu and Kashmir Gaznavi Force (JKGF), whose commander is Rafiq Ahmed, also known as Rafiq Nayi, a local.
Three to four terrorist organisations are presently operating in the Rajouri and Poonch regions, as per the sources. The attack has been attributed to the banned terror organisation People’s Anti-Fascist Front (PAFF), a front for the Pakistani terrorist organisation Jaish-e-Mohammed. In accordance with some accounts, it could also have been the work of another Pakistani terror outfit, Lashkar-e-Taiba.
Recent intelligence inputs implied that LeT operatives planned to infiltrate the Krishna Ghati and Bhimber Gali districts. Infiltrators in the Balakote sector have in the past used the path through the Bhata Durian forests before finally entering the Kashmir Valley, explained a senior police official who has served in the area.
The heavily forested area of Tota-Gali-Bata Doriya has been completely sealed off. According to authorities, the army conducted a reconnaissance flight over the area using an MI chopper while deploying drones and sniffer dogs to track down the terrorists. A high alert has been sounded in the twin border districts of Rajouri and Poonch amid heightened vigil along the Line of Control.
Five Army servicemen were killed and another suffered serious injuries on Thursday after the attack when their vehicle caught fire. The soldiers were from a Rashtriya Rifles unit deployed for counter-terror operations.
Top military and law enforcement officers laid wreaths and paid tribute to the slain soldiers, Havildar Mandeep Singh of the Chankoian village in Ludhiana, Lance Naik Kulwant Singh of the Charik village in Moga, Sepoy Harkrishan Singh of the village Talwandi in Gurdaspur and Sepoy Sewak Singh of the Bagha village in Bathinda, on Friday. The dead bodies were sent to their native places.
Around 3 pm on Thursday, the Army vehicle came under fire while travelling between Bhimber Gali and Poonch in the Rajouri sector. The Northern Command, based in Udhampur, had suggested that the use of grenades was likely what caused the vehicle to catch fire. Military sources informed that the truck was part of a sparse convoy of two to three vehicles that had little security.
On one side of the area, the Mughal Road’s Dehra Ki Gali, and on the other, Surankote, which is adjacent to the Poonch tehsil, are both bordered by thick trees. Based on aerial measurements, the LoC in the Balakote sector is only around 3–4 km distant, making it an attractive path for infiltrators who travel directly through nullahs and woodlands to reach their destination.
Given the significant Army presence in the surrounding areas, sources revealed that those who take this route do not linger in the Bhata Durian area for very long. They only stay for a day or two at most before going on to the village of Behramgala on the Mughal Road and then entering Shopian in the Kashmir Valley.
Notably, a motorist reported two suspicious-looking armed men had boarded his car in Rajouri and exited in the Bhata Durian area of Poonch district to Surankote police station in February of this year. His report prompted the Army troops and Jammu & Kashmir Police to conduct a search operation in the area. However, the searches yielded no results, and the police alleged that the man was lying.
No Eid celebrations in Sangiote
Sangiote hamlet residents in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch district will not observe Eid on Saturday because the ill-fated Army truck was headed for the village. The vehicle was transporting fruits and other supplies for an iftar gathering that was scheduled to take place in Sagiote later that day.
The Rashtriya Rifles unit was in charge of making preparations for the 7 pm ceremony, according to the village’s 4,000 residents, to whom invitations had been sent.
The truck was transporting provisions from the RR’s Basooni headquarters in Balakote, and it also picked up additional commodities en route from the Bhimber Gali area, where the RR is heavily present due to the movement of Army convoys between Poonch and Rajouri.
The Sarpanch of the Sangiote panchayat, Mukhtiaz Khan, said he was among those invited for the Iftar. “Kya iftar jab hamare paanch jawan uss unfortunate haadse mein shaheed ho gaye (what iftar fast when five of our soldiers were martyred in that unfortunate incident),” he bemoaned.
“As soon as we got information about the terror attack from social media groups, a pall of gloom descended on the village. We too wanted to go there,” (but the police and Army had cordoned off the area by then) he bewailed.
He added, “The villagers will not celebrate Eid on Saturday. We will only offer namaz. The deceased were part of the RR unit deployed in our village and our thoughts are with their families.”
In Jammu, various groups, including the Bharatiya Janata Party, Vishva Hindu Parishad, Rashtriya Bajrang Dal, Shiv Sena, Dogra Front, and Jammu Statehood organisation, demonstrated against the dreadful attack.
