Pradip R. Sagar
The repeated fatalities suffered by security personnel in terror attacks in the Jammu region have raised questions about the way counterterrorism operations arebeing carried out in the forested and hilly terrains. Lack of credible human intelligence and perceived deviance from the standard operating procedures (SOPs) of anti-terror operations are believed to be some of the reasons behind the heavy casualties among security personnel in the area.
Of the 119 security personnel who lost their lives in Jammu and Kashmir since 2021, 51 deaths occurred in the Jammu division. For the past two decades, the Jammu region, being relatively free of terror incidents, was thinly militarised compared to the Kashmir Valley. In fact, one of the army's counterinsurgency units was shifted to the Line of Actual Control (LAC) following the border tensions with China since the summer of 2020.
A security officer, who has served in the area, claimed to INDIA TODAY that there is now immense focus on TECHINT (technical intelligence) instead of the time-tested human intelligence (HUMINT). The boots on the ground appear to be missing in the recent counterinsurgency operations, with security forces failing to gather intelligence or information about the movement and activities of terrorists hiding in the area. Intelligence agencies also realise that terror groups have advanced technologically, allowing them to evade the surveillance apparatus of security forces.
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