With the annual Amarnath Yatra closing in, the neighbouring country has intensified its attempts to formant trouble in Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistan has been trying to incite violence and spread terror in the union territory through terrorism, and in this, has even been violating the pacts of peace along the line of control and international border.
Averting a major threat of the annual Amarnath Yatra, security forces last week eliminated five heavily armed foreign terrorists belonging to an outfit commanded by an Afghan war veteran along the Line of Control in Kupwara district in Kashmir Valley.
It was the biggest infiltration bid to have been foiled since 2021, when India and Pakistan effected a ceasefire understanding along the Line of Control.
Five slain terrorists were affiliated to the Jammu and Kashmir Ghaznavi Force, which has Rafiq Nai and Shamsher Nai alias Zafar Iqbal — both residents of Poonch but presently settled in Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir as handlers.
The JKGF has Murtaza Pathan alias Ghaznvi, a resident of Faislabad in Pakistan who is an Afghan (war) veteran affiliated with Deoband School of thought, as operational commander supervising tactical aspect from POJK. While there is a ceasefire understanding between India and Pakistan, the security forces have been getting a large number of intelligence inputs of likely infiltration from across the LoC in the recent past. The top security brass says that the terror groups in Pakistan are using the “facade” of ceasefire to perpetrate terror in Jammu and Kashmir.
The operation clearly establishes the evil design of terrorist groups which are determined to disrupt peace in Kashmir. It also exposes the facade of false commitment to the ceasefire understanding by Pakistan which has repeatedly been exploited to perpetrate terror in Jammu and Kashmir. Last week also marked the arrest of five Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) terrorists from Anantnag district who were involved in the dastardly act of terror of killing of Deepak Kumar of Udhampur district, who was shot dead by two motorcycle-borne militants from a close range when he had gone to the market to buy milk on the night of May 29.
Over the recent years, the focus of Pakistan has been shifting from Kashmir to Jammu region, as has been seen from a number of terrorists attacks in Rajouri and Poonch districts of the region. Jammu and Kashmir has witnessed a marked improvement in the security situation over the last couple of months due to sustained counter-terrorist operations and the tightening of anti-infiltration grids, apart from non-kinetic operations by the Jammu and Kashmir Police and security forces.
However, regular infiltration bids through the Rajouri-Poonch sector in Jammu and North Kashmir areas, especially Kupwara sector, are being made by various terror outfits at the behest of Pakistani agencies. While security forces are on their toes to maintain peace in the region, it also becomes imperative to ensure that this peace lasts long.
The relative peace in the last couple of years and its dividends in the form of un-interrupted education for children of Jammu and Kashmir residents and developmental activities all over the Union Territory have reposed people’s faith in the good governance of the administration, and it is crucial that this faith remains.
