NEW DELHI: After the Pahalgam terror attack, security forces in Jammu and Kashmir are skeptical of terrorists disguising themselves as armed forces officers, complicating their anti-terrorist efforts and endangering civilians who may not be able to distinguish between officers and disguised terrorists, officials said on Wednesday.
Recently, in at least three separate incidents including the Pahalgam attack, terrorists were found wearing uniforms similar to that of the armed forces.
On April 22, heavily armed terrorists from The Resistance Front (TRF) opened fire indiscriminately on tourists in Baisaran Valley. The attackers were mistaken for Indian armed forces officers due to their attire.
Even as investigators believe that some of the terrorists involved in the Pahalgam attack may still be hiding in South Kashmir, the Indian forces in response launched air strikes on terror camps located in Pakistan and Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK), marking one of the most aggressive military actions since the Balakot air strikes in 2019.
Incidentally, in the post Pahalgam attack encounter with terrorists, three Jaish-e-Mohammad operatives - Asif Ahmad Sheikh, Amir Nazir Wani and Yawar Ahmad Bhat - were neutralised in an intense gunfight and following retrieval of their bodies, it was found that all of them were dressed in clothes that resembled uniforms of Indian armed forces.
In another incident when India was dealing with Pakistan’s armed response to Operation Sindoor on May 10, an alert sentry at the high-security Nagrota Military Station in Jammu foiled a suspected infiltration attempt.
The intruder, who attempted to breach the perimeter, was noticed to be in military fatigues, was repelled in a brief exchange of fire and in the process the sentry sustained minor injuries. A combing operation was undertaken to track the suspect.
According to officials, the use of lookalike uniforms by terrorists has now become a major security concern and fear that it could lead to attacks on the forces' own men, particularly during fast-moving operations.
Even civilians will find it difficult to differentiate between protectors and killers, they added, noting that, by deception, the terrorists’ attempt is to erode the trust between civilians and armed forces.
Under these circumstances, the issue was taken up at high-level security review meetings, and senior officers are looking at formulating new standard operating procedures to deal with this new challenge, the officials said.