The Union home ministry has decided to deploy more personnel of the CRPF Valley Quick Action Team (QAT), an elite anti-terrorist unit, to strengthen the ongoing operations in Jammu and Kashmir amid a surge in militant attacks, sources said on Monday.

“Three platoons comprising 150 QAT personnel will soon be deployed in Jammu and Kashmir. They will be armed with sophisticated weapons and their primary task will be to assist the army in carrying out anti-terror operations,” said a ministry official.

The highly trained QAT commandos operate in Jammu and Kashmir and work in coordination with the army and local police. The CRPF has been deployed in the region to assist the local police in maintaining law and order and also take part in counter-terrorism operations.

“The decision to deploy additional QAT personnel has been taken after the top brass of the security establishment recently reviewed the functioning of the security grid and various aspects related to security in Jammu and Kashmir,” the official said.

There has been a surge in terror attacks in Jammu this year. Terror activities have spread to eight districts in the region in 2024 in which 44 people have been killed, including 18 security personnel and 13 terrorists.

Jammu had been relatively terror-free over the pasttwo decades until 2021 when the region witnessed a spikein militant strikes. The surge in terrorist attacks is being seen as a setback for theCentre’s claim of normality and its “all-is-well” narrative in Kashmir since theabrogation of Article 370.

Over 50 security personnel have been killed in Jammu division alone since 2021.

Sources said night patrolling has been intensified across the region, especially in the border villages, to check infiltration of militants from across the border. Besides, public outreach in the form of medical camps and other welfare measures under Operation Sadbhavana (goodwill), including frequent interaction with elders and youth, has also recorded a manifold increase.

Officials in the security establishment had earlier said a lack of “actionable human intelligence” and withdrawal of army companies from Jammu for deployment along the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh to counter the aggressive Chinese army had resulted in the spate of militant attacks in the Jammu sector.

According to figures available with the Union home ministry, 115 civilians and 135 security personnel were killed in terrorist attacks in Jammu and Kashmir from January 2020 to January 2023. The cumulative toll between 2011 and 2013, the three years before the Modi government came to power in 2014, was 57 civilians and 124 soldiers.