Under the gun

A spate of terror attacks in Jammu reveals systemic problems and rattles the BJP's allies

- TARIQ BHAT

IN THE PAST three years, terror attacks in Jammu have killed 48 soldiers. Seven attacks have taken place in the past month alone, the latest being an encounter in which four soldiers were killed in Koti forest in Doda district on July 16. The attackers, like in most cases in recent times, escaped.

The spate of attacks began on July 8, when five soldiers were killed and five were wounded in an ambush on two army vehicles at Badnota in Kathua district. The attackers had grenades and armour-piercing bullets, and they fled when the soldiers retaliated. Subsequent investigations indicated that there was an organised effort to target Jammu after decades of peace.

The Badnota attack had the Army, the police and the Central Reserve Police Force launching a massive search operation deploying drones, helicopters and sniffer dogs. The suspicion is that terrorists hiding in Udhampur's Basantgarh forest could have been involved. Basantgarh is connected to Machedi forest near Badnota, which in the 1990s were used by infiltrators crossing the Kathua border.

Terrorists have been using the mountainous terrain, especially in Poonch and Rajouri districts, to their advantage. The attacks have highlighted this rising threat, and cast a shadow on the assembly polls, which the Supreme Court had ordered to be held by September.