Army officers have also been using drones to locate terror hideouts and underground bunkers, including one under a seasonal stream where the terrorist group led by Zubair Wani had placed a steel box below the surface to escape the web of security forces. (Shuaib Masoodi Express File Photo)
A fake cavity under an Indian toilet or planting a steel box under a seasonal nullah or taking refuge in artificial cavities is a new emerging trend among terror groups in Jammu and Kashmir to play hide and seek with security forces after their stay. with the local population, it turned out to be a high risk.
Police and army officials feel that mounting pressure has forced terrorist groups and their sympathizers to seek alternative hiding places after several encounters with security forces caused several casualties among militant bases.
“Underground bunkers and dummy cavities are not a new phenomenon, but lately we have had several such examples in southern Kashmir. In one case, the terrorists were hiding inside a septic tank of an Indian toilet, ”says Director-General of the Jammu and Kashmir Police, Dilbagh Singh.
Giving details about the incident, an Army team officer, who detected the false cavity in March this year in the Watrigaam area of Anantnag, said they noticed fresh white cement around an Indian bathroom inside a house where a doorway intelligence suggested the presence of terrorists.
“Broken tiles and freshly applied white cement revealed the secret despite the presence of human excrement on the toilet seat to divert us… we started digging and got fire from below. This resulted in the death of four Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists, ”the officer recalled about the operation in March this year.
A similar incident, according to Army officials, occurred in the Lassipura area on the Pulwama-Shopian border in southern Kashmir in 2019 when a home was searched at least six times and the septic tank was eventually dug only to discover two terrorists. hidden underneath.
“We have seen false walls in kitchens, bedrooms and living rooms in many terrorist hideouts, especially in south Kashmir,” said DGP Singh, who was flanked by Inspector General of Police (Kashmir rank) Vijay Kumar and Deputy Inspector General (South) AK Goel, told PTI recently.
Army officers have also been using drones to locate terror hideouts and underground bunkers, including one under a seasonal stream where the terrorist group led by Zubair Wani had placed a steel box below the surface to escape the web of security forces.
While Wani was killed in an encounter in June this year, the telltale signals led the Army team to the underground bunker below the Rambi Ara.
Colonel AK Singh, head of the 44 Rashtriya Rifles, the Army’s counterinsurgency unit that has earned the distinction of having the highest number of terrorist kills, surrender, or arrests, had previously said that this trend had been observed lately in the twin districts of Pulwama. and Shopian, the latter having most of them in view of the dense apple orchards and the jungles.
The surprise was a hideaway in the middle of the Rambi Ara, known for fluctuating water levels and often affected by flash floods, which brought Col Singh and his team members to the drawing board as to the Army, they were not the statistics of the number of deaths, but a worrying trend indicating that the terrorists were now well entrenched within the underground bunkers.
Another novel hide-and-seek strategy was witnessed at Labipora in the Shopian, where the terrorists had covered an iron box on the banks of a river and had a small pipe to breathe in while hiding underground.
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