Pak behind Ban encounter, tunnel found

Jammu: A senior BSF official on Sunday said that the role of Pakistan cannot be denied because, without their involvement, the tunnel cannot be dug along the international border.

BSF along with J&K Police in a joint search operation have detected a 150-meter long tunnel in Regal village of Samba sector of Jammu region.

A day after recovery of Digital Mobile Radio (DMR), manufactured by a Pakistani company named Micro Electronics, a smart phone from a Pakistani company, Q Mobile, shoes, wireless set, and GPS devices at Nagrota encounter site, the security forces have found a tunnel which was used for infiltration by slain four Jaish militants.

“An anti tunneling search was carried out by personnel of 48 BSF battalion (Headquarters Painthee, Samba). During search a tunnel near Border Of Post (BOP), Regal on International Border, Samba was found. It is just opposite to Pakistan’s BOP Chak Bhura”, said a BSF officer.

“The tunnel, approx 5 ft x 5ft in diameter and 200 meters long , is suspected to have been used by four Jaish-e-Mohammad militants who were killed by police and security forces at Ban Toll Plaza near Nagrota along the Jammu-Srinagar national highway on Thursday morning”, said the officer.

“The role of Pakistan cannot be denied because without their consent, the tunnel is impossible,” N S Jamwal, Inspector General BSF here reporters at the tunnel site.

He said the BSF and Police along with intelligence agencies were on the job to crack the route of infiltration and finally on Sunday, the runnel was found.

“It is a fresh tunnel and has never been used earlier for infiltration,” said the BSF Officer adding, “it seems terrorists involved in Nagrotra encounter used this 150 metre long tunnel to infiltrate,” said the IG adding, “we believe they had a guide who took them till highway.”

A joint team of BSF and J&K Police detected a tunnel originating from Pakistan side of IB and exiting into Indian side in the area of BOP Regal, District Samba, Jammu about 150 metres from IB, 70 metre from border fencing with 25 metre depth.

“It appears that proper engineering effort has gone in making the tunnel indicating the nefarious hand of the establishment in abetting terrorist activities. The nearest Pakistan BOPs are – Chak Bhura, Rajab Sahid and Asif Sahid,” Jamwal added.

He said that the exit was in thick bushes carefully concealed and meticulously covered with soil and wild growth.

“The mouth of the tunnel is strengthened and reinforced by the sand bags with markings of Karachi, Pakistan. It is a freshly dug tunnel and appears to be used for the first time,” he added and said that a special team was formed under an officer tasked to conduct a detailed search, subsequent to which by first light the tunnel was detected by BSF along with J&K police.

Earlier, Dilbag Singh, Jammu and Kashmir, Director General of Police, who was also present on the spot, said, “after Nagrota encounter near Ban Toll in which four Pakistani terrorists were killed and huge cache of arms and ammunition was recovered, many questions were raised on infiltration especially how they reached in the national highway?”

He said that after developing intelligence inputs, a search operation was carried out along the border and the tunnel was detected, which is just a few meters away from Pakistan.

“The opening of the tunnel is towards the Pakistan side and the terrorists have used this route to infiltrate,” the J&K Police Chief said.

“Based on leads available consequent to the encounter on Nov 19, with militants and joint team of J&K police, Army and CRPF at Ban Toll near Nagrota, District Jammu, it was learnt that militants were picked up by a truck from Village Jatwal in District Samba on the National Highway,” he added.

IG BSF, DIsG BSF, Commandants and SSP Samba remained present to supervise search and gave directions to search parties.

“Constant motivation from DG BSF & ADG (WC) raised morale of troops. Detection of tunnels is a result of well coordinated operation between BSF, J&K police & Intelligence agencies,” said the top Cop.

The DGP was also accompanied by the IGP Jammu Mukesh Singh to investigate the matter.

11 AK-47 rifles, three pistols, 29 live grenades, six UBGL grenades, mobile phones, compass, pithy bags and other ammunition were recovered from the slain terrorists.

Two policemen of the special operations group (SOG) were also injured in the exchange of fire with heavily armed terrorists. They have been identified as Kuldeep Raj (32) of Akhnoor in Jammu district and Mohammad Ishaq Malik (40) of Neel Qasim Banihal in Ramban district.