Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday chaired a meeting of the cabinet committee on security amid the sudden upsurge in militant attacks in Jammu and Kashmir that have killed several army personnel.

A total 51 personnel have been killed in the Jammu division alone since 2021. Four soldiers, including a captain, were killed in an attack in Jammu’s Doda district on Tuesday.

Two soldiers were injured early on Thursday in a militant attack at a makeshift army camp at Kastigarh in Doda. However, a spirited defence by the soldiers not only forced the insurgents to retreat but also avoided fatalities.

Modi has not yet officially reacted to the incidents.

Sources in the government said that during the meeting, Modi took stock of the prevailing situation in the region and discussed the deployment of security forces and the ongoing counter-terror operations.

“PM Modi directed top security officials to intensify counter-terror operations in the region and also discussed the deployment of security forces,” said an official.

The Centre had not shared details on Modi’s security meeting till the filing of the report.

The Prime Minister had also presided over a review meeting last month in which he directed security officials to deploy the full spectrum of India’s counter-terror capabilities to tackle the situation.

The Congress has questioned Modi’s silence on the series of militant attacks on security forces and slammed the Centre for its “hollow claims” on the return of peace and normality in Jammu and Kashmir.

Sources in the security establishment have blamed the spate of militant attacks in the Jammu sector on the complete failure of “actionable human intelligence” and the withdrawal of army companies from Jammu for deployment along the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh to counter China.

Expressing shock, a former Intelligence Bureau director told this newspaper on Tuesday that there was no accountability despite so many casualties among security personnel.

Thursday’s attack was the third militant-related incident in Doda in three days and came hours before an operation in the Keran sector in which two men, suspected to be infiltrating militants, were killed.

The attack suggests militants are continuing their offensive in the face of relentless anti-militancy operations across the Jammu region, made up of 10 districts.

Sources said militants rained bullets at a school-turned-security-force camp at Jaddan Bhata village in Kasitgarg in Doda at 2am on Thursday when most of the soldiers were sleeping.

The school revealed telltale signs of an apparent close-quarter gunfight. Over a dozen bullets had hit a door of the school and there were splinter marks of a grenade inside a room.

The soldiers put up a brave fight and retaliated, forcing the militants to retreat after exchanging fire for nearly an hour. Reinforcement was sent to the location and a vast area was cordoned off to hunt for the militants.

On Tuesday night, militants had killed an army captain and three soldiers during a gunfight in the Urarbaggi forests. Around 24 hours later, militants were involved in an exchange of fire in the Kralaan Bhatta village of Doda, a few miles away.

A soldier who was badly injured in the gunfight was flown in an Indian Air Force chopper to the Command Hospital in Udhampur. It is, however, not yet clear whether the same militant group was involved in the three incidents.

There have been around a half-dozen militancy-related incidents in Doda since June. Some soldiers were injured in two attacks while the security forces killed three militants in another operation.

On June 12, six security personnel were injured in a militant attack at the Chattergala Pass, followed by a firefight in Gandoh the next day that left a policeman injured.

Militants have killed nine pilgrims and 10 security personnel since the June 9 swearing-in ceremony of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, making it the deadliest phase of violence in years.