Pre-attack surge in terror launch pads activity

At least 120 terrorists gathered every month since December last year across the Line of Control (LoC), both opposite the Jammu region and the Kashmir Valley, to infiltrate into India and carry out three types of attacks — regular terrorist shooting incidents, border action team (BAT) operations and improvised explosive device (IED) explosions — according to central intelligence agency officials.

- Neeraj Chauhan

NEW DELHI:

Around 167 terrorists were present across the border waiting to cross over in December last year, 146 were present in January this year, 138 in February and 122 in March, according to officials who cited intelligence inputs.

This number averaged around 40-50 terrorists ready to infiltrate in the corresponding months last year, officials said.

The spike in numbers suggested that Pakistan army and spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence ramped up its activities for the past three or four months in the run-up to the April 22 Pahalgam attack that killed 26 people. Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba's proxy, The Resistance Front (TRF), claimed responsibility for the attack that coincided with US Vice President JD Vance's visit to India. New Delhi has since identified three Pakistani terrorists and used signal intelligence to underline Islamabad's role in the attack.

A ceasefire was announced along the international border (IB) and LoC in February 2021.