The picture of a green-coloured soft drink bottle, blue polythene bags, vegetable peels lying at the mouth of a stoney structure may look like a garbage dump to you. But as eyes adjust to the glare of the sun, you spot an opening. The police believe this cave housed the terrorists who attacked the Army truck in Poonch on April 22, leaving five soldiers dead.
Faisal Khan, a policeman, who knows the area like the back of his hand, says there are hundreds of such natural caves in the hills of Poonch, which the terrorists are using as hideouts. “They have changed their tactics now. They don’t stay at houses of villagers. They live in these caves…sometimes even leave behind their arms, hide their ammunitions here and then go to nearby markets,” Khan says.
When News18 reached the cave after a 6-km trek from the nearest Gursai Mora village, the police were scanning the place for the nth time, looking for clues. Medicines recovered from the cave and statement by alleged over ground workers (OGW), who reportedly helped the terrorists with supplies, logistics and information, has established the identity of the terrorists as Pakistanis.
“This cave most likely housed three to four terrorists. The height inside is enough to allow a person to sit inside comfortably…the depth is also good,” said Khan even as his colleague enters the cave with a torch to see if any other clue can be found.
A few steps downhill from this cave, the mouth of a second cave was visible. The Poonch police has recovered a mattress from this one. The suspicion is that a terrorist was put on guard duty at the second cave since it gave a clear 360-degree view of the valley below.
The hideouts amid the rocks and thorny shrubs could only be spotted by someone with precise knowledge of these parts.
OGWs
Police have arrested OWG Nisar, his uncle Mushtaq, his minor brother Bilala and another relative, Fareed, for helping the terrorists. News18 met Mushtaq’s wife Shahnaz Akhtar in the village below the hideout. “He is dead for us,” she says when asked about Mushtaq. “Only Mushtaq and Nisar know why the Army took them away. I have not met him since then,” Akhtar said, fending for her all-women household now. Her two sons are working as cattle grazers in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, she says. The house is modest but a pucca structure.
Around eight minutes of trek from Mushtaq’s house was Nisar’s dwelling. Nisar is suspected to be the main OGW who conspired with the terrorists. His wife Shameem and daughter Azra claim he is innocent. “They took away my minor son also. He had just given his Class 10 exam…he was only 17,” Shameem says, wiping her tears away.
There are serious charges against her son Bilal. Investigators say he was tech savvy and helped the terrorists navigate apps, which gave them precise information to their handlers in Pakistan. Azra says police took away mobile phones of everyone in the family. “They brought Nisar twice and took him to those parts,” says Azra as she points towards the cave hideout — the hill from where Pakistani territory can be seen.
This proximity to the border, dense forest and support from locals for the terrorists have turned out to be a game changer for the security grid as terrorism rears its head after a long break in Rajouri and Poonch.
Around 20 terrorists are suspected to be still hiding in these parts. Use of wireless technology that allows them to contact their handlers by-passing the Indian agencies is a challenge. Investigators are also probing if Nisar and Bilal helped a Pakistani drone drop a consignment or arms and ammunitions in these parts, just days before the Poonch truck attack.
Ahead of the G20 meet in Srinagar on May 22, the Army, paramilitary and Jammu and Kashmir police are going all out to ensure that no further incidents are carried out derailing the visit of the foreign dignitaries. But the security grid acknowledges that the threat is beyond G20.
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