NEW DELHI: Camps of Pakistan-backed militant groups have mushroomed across the Line of Control in Pok, with 20 more coming up since the Indian army launched a surgical strike on terror launch pads last September, officials said today.
When the Indian army had mounted the surgical assault, there were around 35 training camps of various militant groups across the LoC and many were dismantled and shifted deep inside Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir.
Quoting intelligence reports, government officials said at 20 new terrorist camps have come up in the last four months, while the earlier ones have also returned closer to the LoC, taking their number from 35 to 55.
All these camps are "actively operating", they said.
The disclosure by the government came a day after Pakistan army's Border Action Teams (BAT), which consist of both army regulars and militants, shot dead and beheaded two Indian soldiers in an ambush they had laid inside Indian territory.
In the first four months of 2017, there were 60 infiltration attempts along the LoC in which 15 terrorists managed to enter into Jammu and Kashmir.
Quoting intelligence reports, officials said as of now around 160 terrorists are active in the Kashmir valley and their Pakistani handlers have instructed them to intensify attacks on security forces to keep the "pot boiling and the LoC active".
They said since the state government will start functioning in the state's summer capital Srinagar from May 8 after the 'Darbar Move', militant groups were trying to boost the morale of their cadre by intensifying attacks on Indian security forces.
Yesterday's assault by a BAT contingent is part of this strategy, they said.