Poonch Terror Attack: Around Thirty People Detained For Questioning, Search For Terrorists

Officials said on Sunday that around 30 people have been taken in for questioning so far as part of a huge search operation to find the terrorists who attacked an Army truck in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch last week, killing five people.

Lt. Gen. Upendra Dwivedi, the Army’s Northern Commander, told the people who survived the ambush in the dense forest area of Bhata Dhurian on Thursday that the terrorists guilty for the deadly attack are being dealt with in the best way possible.

After the attack, a part of the Jammu-Poonch national highway was closed to vehicles. On Sunday, that part of the road was opened again.

The Army’s Northern Command tweeted about Lt. Gen. Dwivedi’s visit to the Command Hospital in Udhampur and his talk with the victim.

It tweeted with two pictures of the soldier, “Dwivedi talked to the survivor and said that the right steps are being taken.”

When terrorists attacked the only Army truck, it was carrying food for iftar to a nearby village. Five troops were killed and one was hurt.

On Saturday, the Army’s northern commander went to the attack spot.

Terrorists from across the Line of Control have used the Bhata Dhurian forest area for a long time to sneak across because of its terrain, thick forest cover, and natural caves.

Dwivedi talked about how safe the border area is and how the search for terrorists is still going on.

In a tweet, the Northern Command said that he had been told about what had been done so far and urged the troops to stick to their plans.

While the search operation was going on and there was a high level of alertness in the border districts of Poonch and Rajouri, traffic on the Jammu-Ponch highway began again on Sunday morning after being stopped on Thursday night.

They said that traffic was once sent down other roads so that the highway between the two border areas and Jammu could be kept safe.

Some of the people who passed by the attack site said that a traffic signboard put up by the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) had three bullet holes in it and that the road stretch was covered with fruits and veggies.

So far, about 30 people have been held for questioning, the police said.

“Two couples from Degwar in Poonch, Iqbal and his wife Mudifa and Salam Din and his wife Rashida, were among those who were arrested,” a government source said, adding that more questions were being asked.

The troops who were killed were from a Rashtriya Rifles unit that was sent out to fight terrorism.

Sources had said before that the attack was likely done by a group of three to four attackers.

The killers may have lived in Rajouri and Poonch for more than a year and knew the area well, they said.

The Jammu and Kashmir Gaznavi Force (JKGF) is said to be operating in the area, and Rafiq Ahmed, also known as Rafiq Nayi, is said to be its “commander.” Ahmed is from the area.

Three or four terrorist groups are working in the Rajouri and Poonch area right now, the sources said.

Sunday, officials said that the terrorists who attacked the Army truck used bullets with a steel core that could go through an armored shield and then ran away with the soldiers’ guns.

They said that they think a sniper shot at the truck from the front before the other attackers started shooting at it and throwing grenades at it.

Officials say that over the past two days, experts from the National Security Guard (NSG) and the National Investigation Agency (NIA) have been to the site of the attack and have gotten a clear picture of how the terrorists set up their deadly trap.

On the other hand, people from the Gujjar and Bakarwal communities went to an Army unit in the Akhnoor area on Sunday to show their support for the troops.

Mohd Akram, who was in charge of the 113-person delegation from the community, asked Defence Minister Rajnath Singh to give the Army free reign to deal with the danger of cross-border terrorism.

“We moved from Banihal tehsil in the Ramban district to Akhnoor about 25 years ago, when terrorism was at its worst. The Army helped us and made sure we didn’t have any problems. We strongly condemn the attack on our troops, and our community stands with our soldiers,” Akram told reporters.

He said that the terrorists are working for Pakistan to make Jammu and Kashmir less quiet, and that they should be dealt with in a harsh way. He said, “We ask the defense minister to give the Army a free hand to deal with terrorism.”

A defense spokesman thanked the community for its care and said that Pakistan’s state-backed terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir has hurt the Gujjars and Bakkarwals the most since the early 1990s.

“The community has been hurt for a long time, and terrorists who get help from the other side of the line have often taken lives and destroyed property. The spokesman said, “These brave nomads have helped the Indian Army fight against insurgencies and terrorism with great courage and conviction.”