In a shining example of intelligence sharing between security forces, a joint team of Army and CRPF jawans on early Thursday morning gunned down four Pakistani Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorists near the Ban toll plaza at Nagrota on Jammu-Srinagar highway. The terrorists, armed with 11 AK-47 rifles, three pistols, and more than four dozen grenades and 10 kg RDX, were hiding in a truck loaded with rice and sand bags. The truck driver fled in the darkness taking advantage of the melee.
When the truck was intercepted at the highway checkpoint, the four terrorists started firing and threw grenades. The terrorists were carrying medicines with Karachi markings and their trouser tags established their Pakistani origin.
The interception and gunning down of four Jaish terrorists at Nagrota is an example of another success of the border grid set up by the Army and Border Security Force at the Line of Control in Kashmir. I salute the intelligence officers who gathered specific inputs about the movement of these terrorists and passed them on to Army and state police, resulting in a brilliant coordinated effort.
The Pakistani terrorists had planned to carry out a major strike and had come prepared with a huge cache of weapons and ammunitions, but they were eliminated before the break of dawn by our valiant jawans. In the three-hour shootout, two police jawans were injured. The truck was blown up by security forces during the encounter.
Intelligence agencies were keeping track of the truck carrying the terrorists after inputs came that infiltrators had crossed over to India near Hiranagar at the international border. The truck was allowed to cross the toll plaza at Thandi Khui area of Samba at around 3.44 am. When it reached the Ban toll plaza, the army and CRPF jawans were fully prepared. They asked the driver to come out and open the truck for search. Soon firing started and the encounter was over within three hours. The encounter took longer because the terrorists were hiding behind sand bags.
The huge quantity of arms and ammunitions along with explosives clearly suggest that Pakistan was plotting to carry out a big terror attack to disrupt the District Development Council polls that are going to begin from November 28 in eight phases. The aim was to strike terror in the hearts of candidates and voters during these crucial polls, in which representatives will be elected to carry out developmental work in the districts. The saddest part is that there are political forces in the Valley who are still towing Pakistan’s line, because they know that their political existence will come to an end if there is all-round development in Jammu and Kashmir.