Srinagar: A Central Reserve Paramilitary Force (CRPF) officer was killed on Monday, August 19, when suspected militants attacked a security force patrol in Jammu’s Udhampur district, officials said.
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The deceased was identified as Kuldeep Singh, who was posted as an inspector with the 187th battalion of the CRPF. A senior police official said Singh was hit by a bullet when a search party of the CRPF and the J&K Police’s elite counter-insurgency unit, the Special Operations Group (SOG), came under heavy firing in the remote Dudu area of Basantgarh.>
“A group of terrorists fired at the search party at around 3.30 pm, injuring Singh. He was immediately rushed to a hospital where he succumbed to his injuries,” the official said, adding that more reinforcements had been sent to the area to hunt down the culprits.
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The attack came five days after a young army captain, Deepak Singh, was gunned down during a similar counterinsurgency operation in the Shivgarh-Assar forest area of Doda district in Jammu. The militants, believed to be highly trained in jungle warfare, subsequently managed to flee the area. A civilian was also injured in the exchange of fire.>
Earlier, on August 10, two soldiers and a civilian were killed in a shootout with suspected insurgents in Anantnag district in south Kashmir. On July 27, an army soldier was killed and at least four other soldiers, including an officer, were injured in another insurgent attack in Kupwara district in north Kashmir.
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Although Kashmir has remained largely peaceful since the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019, the epicenter of conflict-related violence has shifted to the Jammu region, where the armed forces are battling a group of heavily armed militants, some of whom authorities believe are former Pakistan Army soldiers who have taken refuge in the highlands of the Chenab Valley and Pir Panjal regions.>
At least 51 army soldiers, including senior officers, have been killed by militants in the Jammu region over the past three years, raising questions over the Bhartiya Janta Party-led Union government’s claims that normalcy has returned to Jammu and Kashmir following the country’s controversial bifurcation into two union territories in 2019.>
The attacks, which gained momentum in 2021, were initially limited to the forest districts of Poonch and Rajouri. However, in recent months, they have spread to the Chenab Valley districts of Doda and Kishtwar and the plains of Kathua and Udhampur districts, prompting security agencies to deploy additional forces across Jammu division.>
The increase in attacks in Jammu coincided with increased infiltration attempts by militants along the Line of Control (LoC) and the international border in J&K. According to officials, the army foiled three infiltration attempts along the LoC in north Kashmir’s Kupwara district in July, during which six unidentified militants were shot dead, according to officials.
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An army noncommissioned officer was also killed in a shootout during a confrontation with the infiltrators.>
The Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir will hold its first parliamentary elections in ten years next month. The increasing number of militant attacks on security forces and civilians in the Jammu region is likely to make it difficult for the security authorities to ensure a peaceful election.>
The elections are to be held in three phases and the results are expected to be announced in the first week of October.>
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