Botapathri—beginning of a new spate of terror attacks in Kashmir?

Srinagar: The killing of two soldiers of the Indian Army along with two civilian porters at Botapathri, 12 km from Gulmarg, on Thursday evening is the first proactive strike of the militants in Kashmir in the last over 5 years. This is for the first time after February 2019 that the terrorists seem to have laid an ambush after a reconnaissance survey of the strategic road and attacked the security forces across Kashmir valley.
According to well-placed authoritative sources, it was an attack on two Army vehicles. However, the damage remained minimal as the troops from the both targeted vehicles retaliated quickly and forced the terrorists to flee. Apparently, the assailants escaped into the dense forest cover.
Security forces launched a massive search operation, employing sniffer dogs, drones and helicopters over a swathe from Gulmarg to Kreeri and Chandosa and continued it for the whole day on Friday. However, the assailants remained untraced till late on Friday.
PAFF, which is officially claimed to be a front of the foreign terrorists for Jaish-e-Mohammad, purportedly claimed responsibility for the attack. However, a video showing a terrorist firing a rocket on a target, which was released in hours of the ambush through social media appeared to be fake. Officials maintained that the assailants used only their assault rifles. They insisted that there was no evidence of an RPG attack.
“It appears that the terrorists had planned to kill all the soldiers, mutilate their bodies and take away their weapons. But the troops from both vehicles fired back and forced the terrorists to escape. Unfortunately, we lost two of our soldiers and two porters in the very beginning of the attack”, said a senior official.
Thursday’s attack came in four days of a terrorist strike on the civilian workers and engineers working with the construction of the Z-Morh Tunnel near Gagangir on the strategic Srinagar-Leh highway. As many as seven persons, including a doctor, got killed in the attack on 20 October. It occurred in just four days of the Union Territory’s first popular government taking over under the leadership of Omar Abdullah.
As many as 19 persons died in different terror attacks including the major strikes near Sonmarg and Gulmarg in the last 15 days.
Even as over a dozen fatal ambushes happened in Rajouri, Poonch and other districts in Jammu in the last three years, Valley remained by and large calm. A large number of terrorists and several Police and security forces personnel died in different operations but all these operations, after August 2019, were initiated by the security forces. Most of the terrorists died while attempting to escape or during exchange of gunfire between the two sides.
In two-odd incidents, apparently chance encounters, terrorists took some casualties of the Police and Army in Kokernag and Kulgam in the foothills of the Pir Panjal mountain range. However, a meticulous planning witnessed in the two attacks at Gangangir and Botapathri seemed to be missing.
With the two strikes, one each on the civilian and the military targets, both in the areas where no militancy related incident has been reported in the last over 30 years, terrorists and their handlers have communicated to the Government of India that their chapter had not been closed either by the abrogation of Article 370, or the resultant IAF strike on Balakote, or the recent Assembly elections which witnessed an unprecedented participation and enthusiasm.
Clearly, the terrorists have sought to neutralise India’s sense of victory and the claims of the restoration of peace and normalcy in Jammu and Kashmir. Both the strikes have spread a wave of fear among the local populations and the tourists. However, as of now, there are no reports of the cancellation of bookings at hotels and houseboats, even as some groups have put their visits on hold.
Gulmarg is situated in close vicinity of the LoC. In the last over 30 years, some militant groups are believed to have infiltrated into the valley from Gulmarg sector. However, with the exception of a grenade blast, there has been no incident of attack on Police, security forces, tourists or other civilians inside the Gulmarg bowl on the 13-km long Tangmarg-Gulmarg Road.
The strategic Haji Peer pass, which was occupied by Pakistan in 1965, falls between Gulmarg and Uri. In fact, the total distance of the metalled road from Poonch to Uri was 40 km. The Pakistani raiders named their intrusion as “Operation Gulmarg” even as they invaded from Muzaffarabad-Uri side.
While the security and intelligence agencies are holding back-to-back meetings to make the correct analysis of the two terror attacks, there appears to be broadly a consensus that the same are the beginning of a fresh spate of proactive terror attacks on both civilian and military targets in Kashmir.
Officials who have been associated with counterterror operations in Kashmir insist that the security forces’ liaison with the civilian populations around Sonmarg and Gulmarg, mostly Gujjar or Paharis, has remained excellent over the last more than two decades. They are hopeful that unlike in Jammu, at least the group involved in the Botapathri attack would be tracked down and wiped out in the next few days.

Updated On 10/26/2024 3:14:55 AM