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@Evening: 📉 The Terror Pattern Has Shifted In J&K; Here's How
Poonch, Rajouri, and Jammu districts have experienced fewer but more brutal and widely covered terrorist attacks than those in the Kashmir Valley since 2021.
The three districts belong to Jammu region.
They are located south and west of the Pir Panjal mountain range, which separates them from the districts in the Valley.
The figures. In the past three years, a total of 24 security personnel and 75 civilians were killed on both sides of the Pir Panjal mountain range.
Of the 251 terrorist incidents in J&K since 2021, 15 occurred in the three districts of Jammu, while 236 occurred in the Valley.
The three Jammu districts reported two, 10, and three incidents in 2021, 2022, and 2023 (until 30 May), respectively.
In contrast, the Valley witnessed a significantly higher number of such incidents, with 129, 100, and seven occurring during those same years.
The Valley saw 60 civilian casualties, while the Jammu region recorded 15 deaths in the same duration.
Higher impact attacks. More terrorist attacks and casualties have been reported in the Valley than in Jammu, but...
The security establishment has noticed a new trend of high-impact incidents, inflicting maximum damage, in the Jammu region.
In May, five soldiers from the Army's special forces died in Rajouri in a terror attack.
Nine soldiers, including a JCO, were killed in two separate encounters with terrorists between Bhata Durian and Dehra Ki Gali in October 2021.
In August 2022, a terror attack on a military camp in Rajouri claimed the lives of five soldiers.
Even high-profile attacks on civilians have occurred recently, including the deaths of two civilians near an Army camp in Rajouri on 16 December and the killing of seven villagers in an Upper Dangri district attack between 1 and 2 January.
Closer look. According to a high-ranking Army official, terrorists from the lower mountains of Poonch and Rajouri infiltrate into Jammu, carry out high-impact attacks, and enter the Valley by crossing the Pir Panjal range.
“Fewer but high-impact incidents... give the terrorists the publicity they seek,” an Army officer told the Indian Express.
The attacks in Jammu tend to have a higher impact, the officer said, because "at times, even fairly bigger incidents (in the Valley) fail to capture public attention which they would have if they had taken place" in Jammu.
According to sources, a majority of ceasefire violations and terrorist infiltrations through the LoC adjoining the three Jammu districts have occurred in the past five years.
Terrorism is on the rise here due to two main roads passing through it — the Jammu-Srinagar highway and the old Mughal Road.
Additionally, the terrain of low-altitude forested hills in this area is ideal for terrorists.
