The Pakistan army may have agreed to abide by a ceasefire agreement during the recently held Director General Military Operations (DGMOs)-level talks, but on the ground, it still appears to provide training to terrorists at various camps along the Line of Control (LoC).
CNN-News18 has learned that apart from being trained in conventional warfare, terrorists of the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) at the Marala terror camp near LoC are being taught how to infiltrate into India using waterways and digging cross-border tunnels.
Sources told CNN-News18 that at least six terror training camps are still active on the other side of LoC in the areas south of the Pir Panchal mountain range.
A camp in Samani is training terrorists from the Al Badar terror outfit, which is active in Kashmir and believed to have been created by Pakistan’s deep state. Another Al Badar camp is functioning at Barnala in Pakistan’s Punjab province.
In Gulpur, there is a Jaish training camp. A Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) camp is active in Forward Kahuta, while another such camp in Kotli provides training to terrorists from various outfits.
The terror camp near the Chenab river in Marala area is one of the most sophisticated ones, imparting training on underwater movement and digging of tunnels, apart from arms and ammunition training.
“The terror training camp in Marala is sophisticated because Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorists there are not only getting weapons training but they are also being trained on how to dig tunnels using small machines,” a source said.
Sources also said terrorists were also being taught how to infiltrate into the Indian territory through water bodies while holding large quantities of arms and ammunition.
Sources said owing to the “robust anti-infiltration grid” along LoC and the International Border (IB), infiltration by terrorists using traditional routes have become impossible. Hence, these terrorists exploring all options.
For this, the detection of cross-border tunnels has increased in the recent past.“…the trend of the detection of these terror tunnels has seen an upward spiral. While 11 such tunnels were detected by the BSF (Border Security Force) in the past 10 years, four such tunnels were detected in the past six months alone,” the sources said.
On August 28, 2020, BSF detected a 300 metres long tunnel along IB in the Samba sector. Then on November 22, a 150-metre tunnel was found near the Regal Post in Samba district. On January 12, 2021, a 150-metre tunnel was detected in the Hiranagar sector of Kathua district. Eleven days later, officials stumbled on a 170-metre tunnel near the Panesar Post again in the Hiranagar sector.
BSF, which guards IB in the Jammu region, said it was aware of the new ways of infiltration. An official said the force was put in place counter-measures to foil the plans.
“We are aware of this training camp (in Marala), but due to the alertness of BSF, we have detected and destroyed four such tunnels in the past six months. We have been continuously carrying out anti-tunneling drives on our side of the International Border. We have been using ground-penetrating radars, tractors, JCB machines to detect any such tunnel,” a senior BSF officer said.
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