Recovery of caches of arms and ammunition in the mountainous areas of Jammu almost on daily basis indicates that the Pakistan backed terrorists were trying to revive militancy in the Jammu division where terrorism was almost wiped out nearly 16 years ago.

These recoveries and a couple of encounters have also sent a signal that terrorists have again adopted the traditional infiltration routes through the Pir-Panchal range that were virtually abandoned after the Sarpvinash Operation which was launched by the Army sometime in 2002 to flush out the trained terrorists from Rajouri, Poonch and Reasi districts.

The security forces on Friday recovered a cache of arms and ammunition in the Mahore area of the Reasi district of Jammu. A 9 mm pistol, 5 grenades and ammunition have been recovered from a terror hideout, said IGP (Jammu) Mukesh Singh. A 20 years old youth, Mohammad Yousuf after sustained interrogation led the police to the hideout.

The IGP said that the terror module involved in this particular case was part of the module that was unearthed in Jammu last week with recovery of two grenades.

These recoveries have indicated footprints of 5 different terror modules of the newly formed The Resistance Front (TRF) which is the frontal organization of Lashkar-e-Tayiba (LeT).

Security forces had three days ago recovered a cache of arms and ammunition in the Mendhar area of the Poonch district.

Clear indications of Pakistani terrorists reviving the infiltration routes through Rajouri and Poonch came on 13 December when 2 Pakistani terrorists and one belonging to Shopian were killed in an encounter at Chatapani on the Mughal Road that connects the LoC areas of Jammu with south Kashmir. Two AK rifles, 300 AK bullets, 5 grenades, 300 gms RDX, 2 mobiles and one Thuraya satellite phone were among the recoveries from them.

Signals of terrorists trying to regroup in Jammu were available a week ago when two Kashmiri persons, Raees Ahmad Dar and Sabzar Ahmad, were arrested on the bypass here while trying to smuggle one AK rifle, one pistol and ammunition in a car. A day later, one Mohammad Ashraf was arrested and two live grenades recovered from him near the strategic military station at Sunjwan here.

Four Pakistani suicide bombers of Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) were killed in an encounter in November at Ban near the strategic headquarters of the Indian Army’s 16 Corps at Nagrota on the Jammu—Srinagar highway. The terrorists travelling in a truck were carrying a cache of arms and ammunition, including 11 AK-47 Rifles, 3 pistols, 29 grenades and other devices. Medicines with Pakistan marking showed Pakistani origin of these terrorists.

The Border Security Force (BSF) recently foiled an attempt of Pakistan backed terrorists to smuggle Chinese pistols, narcotics and ammunition through the international border in the Arnia sector of Jammu.

The recovery came a day after Pakistani troops dropped with a drone a cache of weapons and cash for LeT terrorists in Rajouri. Three terrorists, who had travelled from south Kashmir to collect the consignment, were arrested. Two AK-56 assault rifles, six AK magazines with 180 bullets, two Chinese pistols, three pistol magazines with 30 rounds, four grenades and Rs 1 lakh in cash were recovered.