Jammu and Kashmir: Surge in attacks brings fear to calmer parts of Himalayan territory

On 9 June, Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir saw one of its deadliest problems in decades.

Nine Hindu pilgrims were killed and more than 30 people were injured after militants opened fire on a bus that was making its way to a shrine in the region.

In addition to the numerous attacks on the military and citizens in the area in recent months, Reasi, one of Jammu’s ten districts, was the location of the fire.

Violence is never a new phenomenon in the picturesque place, but a recent trend has worried professionals: violent exercise seems to be shifting from Kashmir Valley to the less-affected Jammu place.

Kashmir’s Himalayan area has long been a conflict point between Pakistan and India. Since 1947, the nuclear-armed mates have fought two war and a minimal fight over the Muslim-majority province, which both claim but just largely power.

An armed rebellion against Delhi’s law in the Indian-administered territory since 1989 has claimed thousands of lives.

The American government claims that since removing a constitutional provision that gave the region unique autonomy, violence has decreased since then.

However, recent months’ violent incidents, especially in Jammu, seem to have heightened concerns about a militancy return there.

Since 2021, there have been 33 militant-related attacks in Jammu, according to official data. In 2024 alone, the region has seen eight attacks, in which 11 soldiers have been killed and 18 injured. Civilian deaths in Jammu in the first six months of this year were 12, the same number as the whole of 2023.

The problems occurred in Rajouri, Poonch, Doda, Kathua, Udhampur, Reasi and various regions of the Jammu section. Like the Kashmir valley, Jammu very is near the Line of Control, the de facto border with Pakistan. Delhi has accused Islamabad of supplying extremists with arms, drugs, and cash via robots. Pakistan has never publicly responded to these claims.

According to experts, the current spate of problems in Jammu suggests that radical action has spread even further into the national territory.

Some speculate that the valley’s high level of security forces and intelligence action may have caused extremists to reorient their movements south. Some people believe it to be a willful move to deflect the army’s attention away from other important Jammu and Kashmir strategic places.

Since the insurrection began, the river has been the centre of the conflict. In the late 1990s, unemployment had already poured into Jammu, but the area has n’t been much of a hushed state since 2002.

So, the rise in militant activity in Jammu since 2021 (two years after India scrapped the region’s special status) and the back-to-back strikes in the past few months have deeply unsettled the entire security apparatus in Jammu and Kashmir.

According to reports, extremists have been using the trees and perilous terrain of Jammu to conceal from the security forces and are well-trained in forest battle.

It is difficult for security forces to arrive on time in areas of Jammu state where the ground is difficult and roads are congested.

Retired Colonel Bhuwanesh Thapa, father of a soldier who was killed in Doda last week, told reporters that his son had called him before leaving for the search operation and that his team had been preparing to undertake a six to seven-hour trek to reach the location.

Shesh Paul Vaid, a former policeman commander who had participated in anti-insurgency activities in the river, thinks that the rise in violent attacks in Jammu is a plot to “divert interest” from Kashmir.

He even attributes the surge in crime to a “well-thought-out plan” by China and Pakistan to extend out India’s military forces.

Like Pakistan, China too shares a disputed border with India in the Himalayan region. Known as the Line of Actual Control (LAC), it falls close to Ladakh, a mountainous territory to the east of Jammu and Kashmir.

According to reports, India’s stand-off with China in the Ladakh territory since 2020 has compelled it to give more troops to the warm plain. These forces apparently left Jammu, leaving the area prone to violent activities.

For longer, India’s proper society has feared the idea of a two-front conflict along its northern and western edges. Any martial bribe between Pakistan and China, according to experts, will stretch India’s defenses.

” The drying of troops]in Jammu] is making an impact. The insurgents are taking advantage of it”, said Lt Gen Deependra Singh Hooda, a former military chief.

Lt Col Suneel Bartwal, an army spokesperson in Jammu, told the BBC that the army had been conducting a series of” joint and co-ordinated businesses” with police to eliminate “foreign extremists”. He added that several steps had been taken to improve interaction between the several regional safety organizations.

Some researchers also point out that Kashmir’s knowledge system is less developed than Jammu because of its comparative quiet and fewer violent incidents since 2002.

Counter-insurgency scientists have been stationed in Kashmir, according to political scientist Zafar Choudhary, for the past three years rather than Jammu.

” They]forces ] have understood the terrain and topography of the Kashmir valley over the years ,]but ] not much of Jammu”, he says.