Jihadis step up provocation, spread operations beyond Kashmir to grab eyeballs

NEW DELHI: Pakistan's ISI is increasingly focusing on areas beyond Kashmir for terror attacks, with the Jammu region and border areas of Punjab being the favoured targets. Strikes in these new regions, sources said, cause far more impact, triggering an immediate and sharp reaction from the Indian establishment.

Even though the infiltration may happen from either the Kashmir or Jammu region, the ISI is now getting terror outfits to direct their men to travel further to Jammu and even border districts of Punjab to stage an attack. "This grabs more eyeballs and works well for their strategy of triggering an immediate reaction in Delhi," said a senior home ministry officer.

According to home minister Rajnath Singh, as many as five infiltration attempts were made from across the border, of which four were foiled, resulting in neutralization of eight militants. In one remaining case, the terrorists were forced to retreat to Pakistan.




Intelligence inputs suggest that ISI's strategy is to expand the arc of terror beyond Jammu and Kashmir to cover the hinterland, with militants being trained accordingly.

On 27 July, three terrorists in army fatigues opened fi re at a car and bus before attacking the Dinanagar police station in Gurdaspur district of Punjab. This was the fi rst terror attack in eight years in Punjab, once the centre of Sikh militancy.

The terrorists had sneaked into India from a gap in Ravi River. Three civilians and four policemen, including a superintendent of police, were killed and 15 others injured in the attack.

In addition, five bombs were found planted on the Amritsar-Pathankot line on a rail-bridge near Parmanand railway station, 5km from the attack site.

The GPS, recovered from the three slain militants, show that the devices had coordinates of 13 places in Punjab stored in them, including two temples and a college.

In Thursday's attack, the attackers infiltrated into Kashmir but travelled all the way to Udhampur to attack a BSF convoy.