AGENCY
New Delhi: The three terrorists killed in Samba in Jammu might have crawled through an 80-metre-long tunnel under farm lands to cross the International Border (IB), the BSF chief said on Wednesday.
Addressing journalists on the eve of the Border Security Force’s 51st Raising Day here, its chief K K Sharma said the paramilitary force had “strong inputs” about possible infiltration bids by terrorists from across the IB following the Indian Army’s surgical strikes on terror launch pads, and hence it was “in a position” to detect and neutralise the heavily-armed terrorists.
“After the operation got over at the Chamliyal BoP (border outpost), we checked the fence and there was no breach. Then today morning, we detected a small tunnel of the size of 2×2 metres… We had deployed ‘depth nakas’ across the fence and hence we could detect and neutralise the three terrorists. The tunnel was found in a field where farming is done and has soft soil.
Meanwhile, top officials said the terrorists had planned to carry out a chain of terror attacks by blowing up running trains and tracks with chained IEDs and hard to detect liquid explosives.
They added that the trio was carrying five bottles of liquid explosive trinitroglycerin.
” Terrorists had infiltrated to carry out big incidents. Their design was to blow up rail tracks and trains here as we have recovered chained IEDs and liquid explosives”, Additional Director General (ADG) BSF and Special DG (Western Command) Arun Kumar said.
They were out to carry out a chain of big impact terror incidents including blowing up of “running trains” and causing fire in trains as chain IEDs and liquid explosive are meant to blow up tracks and cause fire, he said.
“Had our troops not successfully contained and eliminated these heavily-armed terrorists with huge stores of explosive material, they could have caused massive damage in the mainland”, Kumar said. “It was only because of BSF’s multi-tier security cover that this calamity was averted,” the force said.
Apart from arms, ammunition and explosive stores, BSF recovered 10 Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) including five liquid type IEDs and three IED waist belts, five chain IEDs from three slain militants along IB in Chamliyal belt of Ramgarh sector in Samba district on Tuesday.
“Chain IEDs are mainly used to blow up rail tracks and hit running trains. The five bottles of liquid explosive contained trinitroglycerin. It is used to cause explosion and trigger fire”, IG BSF Jammu Frontier DK Upadhyaya said.
Terrorists are resorting to using undetectable liquid explosives like nitroglycerin now, the official said. Nitroglycerin can be used for dynamite, explosive devices, and poison. Invented in 1847, it is made by adding acids to glycerin. Viscous and clear, it easy to conceal in lotion or shampoo bottles, an expert said.
Physical shock can start a chain reaction that breaks molecules down into carbon dioxide, water, and oxygen.
The breaking of the bonds between the atoms creates an explosion, he said. The Jammu-Pathankot railway line is 20 kms away from the International Border (IB). There have been several attacks targeting trains and tracks in Jammu-Samba-Kathua belts in the past.
It may be recalled that on July 27, 2015, three gunmen dressed in Army uniforms opened fire on a bus and then attacked the Dina Nagar Police Station in Gurdaspur district of Punjab after planting five chain linked bombs (IEDS) on the Amritsar-Pathankot line near Parmanand railway station, 5 kilometres from the site of the attack.
A railway trackman, while patrolling along the railway track between Dina Nagar and Jhakholari railway stations, spotted five bombs wired to a small bridge on the Amritsar-Pathankot line just before a passenger train was due to cross the bridge. The train stopped 200 metres from the bombs. The attack resulted in the death of three civilians and four policemen, including a Superintendent of Police. Fifteen others were injured.
All three attackers were killed in the operation, which lasted almost 12 hours.
Militants crossed into IB and triggered bomb blasts on Jammu railway station on August 7, 2001, killing 12 people and injuring 29.
Similarly, infiltrating militants blew up a track in Samba on October 26, 2003. On February 10, 2000, infiltrating militants triggered blast in Shalimar Express train in Satwal in Kathua district killing five persons.
The infiltrating militants were also carrying 10 handcuffs with a design to carry out hostage taking. “We have recovered from them 10 handcuffs in plastic. I think they were planning to carry out hostage taking as part of engineering terror incidents”, the IG said.
Three AK-47 rifles, a pistol, 20 magazines, 514 AK rounds, a pistol magazine, 16 pistol rounds, 31 live grenades, 10 IEDS including 5 IED waist belts, five chain IEDs (used to blow up railway tracks), Global Positioning System (GPS), one mobile, two wireless sets with chargers, 2 knives, 2 dressing rolls, 2 jackets, 3 bags, one head gear, one lighter, 3 gloves, 5 dry fruit packets and Pakistan made eatables were recovered from the slain terrorists in Ramgarh sector on Tuesday.
TUNNEL DETECTION SHIVERS SECURITY ESTABLISHMENT
Detection of at least 80-metre long tunnel near Chamliyal Border Outpost in Ramgarh Sector of Samba district on Wednesday morning has send shivers down the spine of security establishment already grappling with the puzzle of tracking down the route taken by the fidayeen group before storming Nagrota based army artillery unit.
Even 24 hours after the three fidayeens were neutralised, the security forces were unable to find out how they managed to reach the highly fortified garrison town exposing loop holes in the security bandobast. Interestingly, recoveries made by the army in Nagrota and BSF officers in Samba have also alerted them in advance about the possible security threat to security installations in the region.
Recovery of notes written in Urdu have once again signalled towards the involvement of Jaish-e- Mohammad cadre behind the fidayeen strike on high value security installation. Some hand-written posters in Urdu were also seized. These read “Afzal Guru Shaheed Ke Inteqaam Ki Ek Aur Kisht”.
The intelligence agencies have been tasked to verify the claims even as the state police would be focusing on tracking the route taken by the fidayeen squad before striking in Nagrota. It could not be ascertained whether these fidayeen travelled via Udhampur and deboarded at Nagrota or came via Jammu after infiltrating from across the International border.
