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 China have led to a spate of militant attacks in the Jammu sector, officials in the security establishment have said.

“The sudden upsurge of militant attacks in Jammu clearly suggests complete intelligence failure. Besides, the thin deployment of the army in this sector is also to be blamed as several companies were withdrawn only to be deployed along the China frontier in eastern Ladakh since the border standoff in May 2020. This relocation has left the key areas of Jammu extremely vulnerable,” a security official attached to the Union home ministry told The Telegraph.

Jammu region, which has 10 districts, had been relatively terror-free for over two decades until 2021. The surge in terror attacks is being seen as a setback to the Centre’s claim of normality and its “all-is-well” narrative in Jammu
and Kashmir since the abrogation of its special status under Article 370.

As many as 52 security personnel have been killed in the Jammu division alone since 2021.

A former Intelligence Bureau chief told this newspaper that despite recurring attacks on the army, the authorities have failed to take necessary measures as the militants have shifted their operations from Kashmir to Jammu where “counter-insurgency measures are not up to the mark”.

“The first and foremost thing is to fix the glaring loopholes in the existing security apparatus in Jammu. There has been a complete lack of an actionable intelligence mechanism in all the latest attacks. The most shocking thing is that there is no accountability despite so many casualties. No one seems to be bothered, be it the political leadership or the army top brass,” the former Intelligence Bureau chief said.

A security official attached to the Border Security Force (BSF) said the eroding trust in the security establishment among locals had made counter-terror operations in Jammu very challenging. Citing the death of three civilians after being allegedly tortured by army officers following the Poonch terror attack in December last year, the official said public trust was the biggest casualty of that incident.

“Instead of propagating false narratives of ‘Naya Kashmir’, the government and security agencies need to confront the grim ground reality and act accordingly,” he said.

“Jammu has become the new front for militants considering the massive militarisation, crackdown on overground militants and the better human intelligence network in the Valley. This has forced the militants to relocate from Kashmir and regroup in Jammu,” he added.

Unlike Kashmir, which is relatively flat, Jammu is rugged and mountainous. Rajouri and Poonch districts in Jammu are more conducive for militants because of their proximity to the Line of Control (LoC) and their mountainous landscape and thick forests.

Four army personnel were killed on Monday night after an encounter with militants in Desa forest in Jammu’s Doda district. At least eight attacks have been reported in Jammu alone since June.

On July 8, five soldiers were killed and as many injured in a militant attack in Kathua district in Jammu. On June 9, militants had attacked a bus carrying pilgrims returning from the Shiv Khori shrine, killing nine and injuring dozens in Jammu’s Reasi.

In 2017, a parliamentary panel had recommended several measures after a series of terror attacks on the army in Pathankot, Uri, Nagrota, Pampore and Baramulla, saying the attacks had “exposed the deficiencies of our intelligence agencies”.

“No analysis seems to have been done into the failure of the intelligence agencies to provide credible and actionable inputs” relating to these attacks, the panel had said while recommending building a comprehensive intelligence infrastructure to address the security challenges and analyse the terror attacks to avoid repeats.

The panel had also highlighted the possible failure of the army and the BSF in foiling infiltration attempts along the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir.

According to records available with the Union home ministry, as many as 115 civilians and 135 security personnel had been killed in militant attacks in Jammu and Kashmir between January 2020 and January 2023. The cumulative toll between 2011 and 2013 — the three years before the Narendra Modi government came to power in 2014 — was 57 civilians and 124 soldiers.