NEW DELHI: The death toll of the armed forces in Jammu region this year has gone up to 11 after four Army personnel, including a captain, were killed on Monday in a gunfight with heavily armed terrorists in Doda district.
Chief of Army Staff General Upendra Dwivedi and all ranks of the Indian Army on Tuesday conveyed their deepest condolences to the bravehearts Captain Brijesh Thapa, Naik D Rajesh, Sepoy Bijendra and Sepoy Ajay, who laid down their lives in the line of duty, while undertaking a counter terrorist operation.
"The Indian Army stands firm with the bereaved families in this hour of grief," the Army said.
The 11 soldiers killed include an airman of the IAF. In comparison, three terrorists have been neutralised in Jammu. Since 2021, 34 soldiers have been martyred while 40 terrorists were killed in the same period.
Confirming the TNIE story done last Monday, Army sources reiterated that there have been issues related to intelligence inputs, while the terrorists have brought in changes in their tactics.
A week earlier, on the previous Monday, five soldiers were killed and as many wounded in a terror attack in the remote Machedi area of Kathua district, reflecting a spurt in terror attacks and hinting at changes in tactics by terrorists. It also revealed weaknesses involving troop deployment.
Sources in the security establishment pointed to thinner troop deployment, scarce ground intelligence inputs, and a tactical shift in terrorist strategy. The area earlier was looked after by a battalion (around 800 troops) which at present it has two companies (around 260 troops).
Also, terrorists have reduced taking logistics support from the locals and are using caves/caverns for hiding, sources said. The thick foliage and tree canopies add to the camouflage both from aerial surveillance and human tracking, they added. "These terror operations are being led by retired soldiers of the Special Service Group, the special operations group of the Pakistan Army," said a source.
The Machedi incident is the second major attack in Kathua within a month, following a similar confrontation on June 12 and 13 that left two terrorists and a CRPF jawan dead.
SP Vaid, former Jammu and Kashmir Police, had told The New Indian Express that militant infiltration has not stopped. "Pakistan has a militant factory which churns out attackers in J&K to cause disturbance," he said. The spurt in terror attacks in Jammu is a planned move by terrorists "to draw attention" to their self-belief that "terrorism is not dead". Sources in the security establishment added that the government has authorised confiscation of properties of supporters of terrorists.
