After infiltration, ultras were heading to Valley in rice-laden truck
Huge arms haul: 11 rifles, 3 pistols, 29 grenades recovered
NIA team visits Nagrota, several Pak-made medicines seized
Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Nov 19: Police and CRPF today averted major terror attack by Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) militants aimed at disrupting the ongoing first-ever District Development Council (DDC) elections by killing four militants, believed to be Pakistanis, in a pre-dawn encounter at Ban Toll Plaza in Nagrota area on Jammu-Srinagar National Highway, which was second at almost the same spot this year and fourth between Nagrota-Jhajjar Kotli during last four years.
The modus operandi used by militants for reaching Kashmir from Jammu after successfully infiltrating from the International Border was almost same in the last three gun battles at Jhajjar Kotli and Ban Toll Plaza. However, there have been reports that many militants had managed to reach South Kashmir unchecked on the National Highway which had been confirmed by the truck operators, who were caught at Jhajjar Kotli and Ban Toll Plaza during previous encounters. Click here to watch video
Inspector General of Police (IGP) Mukesh Singh told reporters along with IG CRPF Jammu PS Ranpise that joint team of police and CRPF signaled a truck to stop at Ban Toll Plaza as Jammu Police had very specific inputs that the militants were trying to infiltrate to disrupt the DDC elections. The truck driver jumped out and fled away. Police and CRPF personnel surrounded the truck and they were soon joined by the Army teams from Nagrota and the SOG Jammu.
The IGP Jammu made an announcement from loud speaker urging the militants to come out of the truck and surrender but they opened heavy firing and lobbed grenades on security personnel, who retaliated effectively. After heavy exchange of firing with encounter extending up to three hours, the security personnel killed all four militants and the truck caught fire. The truck No. JK01AL 1055 was extensively damaged.
Two police personnel were injured in the militant firing. They have been identified as Mohammad Ishaq Malik and Kuldeep Raj. They have been admitted in the Government Medical College (GMC) Jammu and were responding to the treatment.
Besides the IGP Jammu, DIG Jammu Vivek Gupta, SSP Jammu Sridhar Patil, SP Operations Naresh Singh and Additional SP Jammu Sanjay Sharma reached the spot. Senior officers of Army and CRPF also visited the spot. Sources said the operation was meticulously executed which was evident from the fact that only two police personnel sustained minor injuries in the terror attack though the militants opened heavy volume of firing on them with assault rifles and lobbed many grenades.
There was no official confirmation as from which area the militants infiltrated and were picked up by the truck driver but, according to reliable inputs, the militants had crossed the International Border between Samba and Kathua and were on their way to Kashmir in the truck, whose operator was already waiting there to pick up them. The truck was loaded with rice bags and belonged to Kashmir. The militants had to reach the Valley.
While the CCTV footage of the National Highway from Kathua to Nagrota is under examination, sources said the truck had crossed Thandi Khui around 3.45 am and reached Nagrota at about 5.20 am. The militants had hidden themselves in specially created cavity between rice bags in the truck.
Identity of the militants hasn’t been established but they were believed to be Jaish-e-Mohammed activists and most likely their nationality was Pakistan. They were wearing normal dresses.
This is, however, for the first time that four militants were carrying 11 AK rifles with them, which have been recovered by police along with three pistols, 28 live grenades, six UBGL grenades, 7.5 grams RDX, three wireless sets, 24 AK magazines, three pistol magazines, one bundle of liquid explosive, five battery remotes, one RDX remover timer, 10 pencil cells, mobile telephones, compass, two watches, pithoo bags, four pouches, seven blankets, seven chocolates, one cutter and some clothes.
A number of medicines, injections and syringes have also been seized from the possession of militants which were made in Karachi, Kasur and other cities of Pakistan indicating clearly that the slain militants were Pakistanis and had infiltrated from across the border for causing large scale disturbances during the District Development Council elections. Seized medicines include Dicloran, Panadol, Paracetamol, Flagyl, Metronidazol etc. Some of them bear names of manufacturers as Sanofi-Aventis Pakistan Limited Plot No. 23, Sector 22, Korangi, Industrial Area, Karachi, Lahore Medical Instruments Private Limited, 48-KM Ferozepur Road, Kasur, Pakistan, Telephone 049-2716118 and Qarskit Industries Private Limited, Plot No. 56/1-4, Phase-I & II Hattar, Industrial Estate, District Haripur, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan E No. 004140007.
Like previous encounters at Ban Toll Plaza and Nagrota, the militants managed to cross several police nakas after their infiltration between Samba and Hiranagar on their way to South Kashmir. While three such attempts in which the militants were heading to Kashmir in trucks after infiltration from the International Border have been detected, the truck operators and cleaners who were arrested after Jhajjar Kotli and Ban Toll Plaza attacks previously had admitted that they had transported many militants to Kashmir after picking up them between Samba and Hiranagar.
Meanwhile, the National Investigating Agency (NIA) sleuths also visited the site of terror attack at Ban Toll Plaza in Nagrota for on spot investigations. Generally, investigation in such terror attacks is handed over to the NIA by the Union Home Ministry. However, no official order has so far been issued of shifting the case to the NIA, which has been investigating number of such attacks in Jammu and Kashmir.
Reliable sources said the truck driver had already reached Jammu for picking up militants from designated spot on Jammu-Pathankot National Highway as per directions of Jaish-e-Mohammed cadre. He had loaded the truck with rice bags and was scheduled to drop the militants to South Kashmir. The militants had fitted themselves between the rice bags.
“Identity of the truck driver hasn’t been ascertained so far but the investigating teams have managed to get all details pertaining to truck owner and his whereabouts. Message has been flashed to Kashmir Police to nab him while efforts in Jammu were on to get the truck driver, whose arrest is very crucial as he could take the lid of the area where he picked up the militants, the Jaish commanders who had assigned him the task of transporting militants and the place where they had to be dropped,” sources said.
Investigators have also obtained CCTV footage of various locations on Jammu-Pathankot National Highway to ascertain movement of the truck.
Major attacks near Nagrota
This was the fourth major terror attack which was successfully thwarted by security forces between Nagrota and Jhajjar Kotli in Jammu district on Jammu-Srinagar National Highway.
On November 29, 2016, three militants had attacked Army establishment at Nagrota. In the gun battle, seven Army soldiers, two of them officers, were martyred while the troops had eliminated all three militants.
On September 13, 2018, three militants were trapped by police at Jhajjar Kotli when they were being transported in a truck from the International Border between Hiranagar and Samba to South Kashmir. They were killed after two-day-long encounter in which several security personnel including then SP Katra Naresh Singh, now SP Operations, then DySP Nagrota Mohan Sharma and then DySP Katra Vivek Shekhar among others were injured. Truck driver and cleaner, who were working as OGWs for the militants, were arrested.
On January 31, 2020, three militants were intercepted in a truck at Ban Toll Plaza in Nagrota and were eliminated by police and CRPF personnel. In this operation also, police had arrested driver and conductor of the truck.
In Nagrota and Jhajjar Kotli attacks in which two OGWs each were arrested, they had disclosed that they had already transported many militants from the International Border between Samba and Kathua to South Kashmir.
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