Pakistani terror outfits attempting to infiltrate Kashmir to recruit young men: Army sources

The handler is trying to target 14-18 age group youths to join their terror groups as they can easily be motivated.

Srinagar: The Intelligence wing had alerted security agencies forces after intercepting the two conversations of terror handlers across the border with the Pakistani terrorists active in Kashmir. As per the conversation, the terror handlers had instructed the foreign terrorists in Kashmir to radicalise the maximum number of local youth's and recruit them into terror groups.

The handlers asked them to target 14-18 age group youths as they can easily be motivated.

Sources in the army further said that terror handlers have admitted that from the last year it has become almost impossible for the terrorist outfits to push their trained men on the other side of LOC from Pakistan as the counter-infiltration grid is very strong.

After this alert security forces have shifted their focus to foreign terrorists and want to eliminate them as soon as possible. Police say that the three months of winter generally becomes a good opportunity for them for infiltration due to heavy snowfall.

''If one foreign terrorist comes in the valley, it means he will be recruiting 4 local boys into the terror ranks. And that's why we are focussing on foreign terrorists and want to neutralise all of them soon. Mostly to stop the recruitment of young boys into these terror outfits,'' said IGP Kashmir Vijay Kumar.

The number of active foreign terrorists is about 84-85 said IGP and we have already shifted our focus on them with a stronger human intelligence grid.

“We have launched 8 anti-terror operations in last two weeks and out them, in 4 operations we had input about the presence of Pakistani terrorists and we managed to kill 7 Pakistani terrorists in those operations, it's a big success for us" he added.

Aimed three tyre security grids on the line of control had made it impossible for terrorists to infiltrate and in last year only two infiltration bids were successful while 9 infiltration attempts were foiled by the army in Kashmir.  On another side, the anti-terror operations are also being carried out regularly after every small input or information.

In the first two weeks, 8 encounters happened in Kashmir and security forces managed to kill 14 terrorists and among them, 7 are Pakistani nationals. Besides sophisticated weapons are also recovered which includes American made 2 M4 assault rifles, 2AK 56, 4AK 47 rifles.

Last year in the month of December in a press conference army GOC 15crops Dalip Pandey said that it's the first time in the last 30 years that the number of active terrorists in Kashmir had gone below 200.

An army official said that " amid three tyre security grid on the line of control had made infiltration almost zero, only two attempts in last year were successful for them in which 5 terrorists crossed this side among them we have neutralised 2 till now and arrested one."

He said that it's because the terror handlers across the border want more recruitment of Kashmiri youth in terror outfits so that the dropping number of active terrorists can grow, but we are aware of their plans so we are working on all fronts" he said.