(MENAFN- IANS) By Amresh Srivastava
New Delhi, Feb 12 (IANS) Frustrated with a marked decline in terrorist incidents in Jammu and Kashmir, the notorious Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan has tasked the terror outfits in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) to step up attacks on the security forces and political cadre of Jammu and Kashmir, the intelligence agencies' reports revealed.
The sources in the security grid in Jammu and Kashmir, quoting report said that a meeting was held earlier in last week of January wherein the operation commanders of terror outfit such as Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), Al Badr and Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) in PoK and they were instructed to scale up attacks on security forces and political cadres of the Jammu and Kashmir.
The meeting of tanzeem commanders was held at a small town Malakpaiyan in Muzaffarabad district in the PoK wherein a Lt Colonel ranked officer of ISI expressed displeasure with the commanders over a marked decline in terrorist activities in Kashmir Valley.
'He has tasked the commanders to make arrangements for suitable terrorist attacks in the Valley and to recruit young youths and Over Ground Workers (OWG),' the Intelligence report generated from Kashmir valley said.
The sources also said that the ISI officials have been very frustrated that despite all resources like trained mercenaries who returned from Afghanistan with advance weapons were not able to execute ISI's plan to de-stablise the peace and developmental work in the Jammu and Kashmir.
The ISI handlers are also worried over the killings of terrorists and Over Ground Workers (OWG) in Jammu and Kashmir by the security forces along with Indian Army, the sources added
The intelligence reports also said about the movement of a local Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist Rayees Ahmad along with two unidentified terrorists who have visited Nubuk Nanil under Mattan police station in Anantnag.
'Ahmad along with other two terrorists frequently visit Nubuk Nanil suggests that he might be shifting his base and visiting the locality for fresh recruitment of youths from the nearby villages in HM cadre,' the sources said, quoting from the intercepted chats.
This group might be planning to attack security forces and political workers in between Bijbehera and Anantnag, they added.
A senior official in the Jammu and Kashmir security set up said that the ISI was very hopeful after the Taliban took over Afghanistan in August last year and in last seven months. the terror organisations like LeT, JeM, Al Badr and HM could not execute major terror attacks in the Kashmir Valley barring a few lone wolf attacks last year.
Recently, the security forces have neutralised a number of terrorist commanders during operations and ISI backed ultras are finding it difficult to find suitable replacements for them so far.
The fresh recruitment of cadres has also taken a beating owing to a variety of reasons including a crackdown on funding channels like NGOs and trade-based financing of terrorism in Kashmir Valley.
The National Investigation Agency and the Enforcement Directorate have undertaken a number of probes to choke terrorist financing and money laundering respectively, preventing funds flow to the terror outfits, the officials in the security grid added.
After a series of lone wolf attacks in Kashmir Valley in September-October last year, the government set up a coordination centre in Srinagar and a concerted efforts to neutralize the terrorists was initiated wherein all security forces active in J&K started operations in a most coordinated manner and shot down 137 terrorists there in 2021.
To prevent the attacks on the security forces and civilians, a new security grid was created in urban areas of Kashmir wherein the control rooms were set up to keep eye on suspicious movements near around the security forces and the public places.
The security grids and the setting up of a unified control centres helped a lot in neutralising the terrorists and OGWs last year and this system will be set up in other small towns of Anantnag and places to prevent the movements of these ultras, the officials in the security forces admitted.
--IANS
ams/pgh
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