A “red alert” has been sounded to all military, air force and paramilitary establishments throughout Jammu and Kashmir following intelligence reports of two groups of about eleven heavily-armed terrorists of the Afzal Guru Squad (AGS) formed by Maulana Azhar, chief of the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), having infiltrated from Pakistan through the international border at Gurdaspur in Punjab and the Line of Control (LOC) in Poonch.

Sources said that the Airforce station at Pathankot (Punjab) has also been put on high alert as it became target of a severe terror attack by ultras of JeM last year. Defence establishments in the entire J&K right from Lakhanpur, which is the entry point in the state from Punjab, to Uri in the extreme North along the LOC in Kashmir have been put on high alert, said an intelligence source.

The group of terrorists is learnt to have been tasked by the ISI of Pakistan to target military and paramilitary camps. One such attack came on Saturday last week when three Pakistani terrorists stormed the police lines in Pulwama in South Kashmir where eight security personnel were killed. Before getting killed, the terrorists had written their identity as AGS (Afzal Guru Squad) with their blood on a wall of the police lines.

After remaining in hibernation for few years, the JeM has become active particularly after the US in February last year while throwing its weight behind India, moved the United Nations for banning Azhar and declaring him an international terrorist. However, China opposed the move.

Various intelligence agencies, including the military intelligence, Intelligence bureau and the counter intelligence establishments were reportedly trying to trace the group of terrorists that are believed to have infiltrated through Gurdaspur and Poonch.

The Pakistan army has been enabling the terrorists to infiltrate into the Indian soil by indulging in heavy shelling and firing to engage the Indian security forces and the terror groups cross the LOC fence under the cover of firing. They also bored tunnels across the LOC for pushing the terrorists but these were detected by vigilant men of Army and BSF. The river routes leading to the Indian border in the Gurdaspur sector have also become a favourite infiltration route for Pakistani terrorists.

The attacks at the IAF station in Pathankot and the other at the police lines of Gurdaspur last year were masterminded by the JeM ultras who reportedly infiltrated through the border in Gurdaspur.

The JeM was pushing terrorists mostly of Pakistani and other foreign nationalities who mostly remain unidentified after being killed by the Indian security forces. The three JeM terrorists killed in the police lines at Pulwama have remained unidentified.

The three JeM terrorists eliminated during the attack on a military camp near the headquarters of the 16 Corps at Nagrota near Jammu on 30 November last year have also remained unidentified. The National Investigation Agency (NIA), which is investigating the Nagrota terror attack, on Tuesday announced a reward of Rs. 2 lakh for identifying the three terrorists whose photos were published in an advertisement released in local newspapers by the NIA.