When changing tactics, terrorist clothing in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) now builds complicated underground bunkers deep inside thick forests and raised ridges instead of the local houses on Sunday (September 14, 2025).
This tactical shift, powered by local support eroding, is a new challenge for the military and other security forces.
This came to the forefront last week during a meeting at the higher reach of the Kulgam district, where two terrorists were killed. As the operation proceeded, the security forces found a secret moat with rations, miniature gas stoves and pressure cookers, as well as weapons and ammunition.
One higher security officer who applied for anonymity said that the trend has spread in the districts of Kulgam and Shopian, as well as the south of Pir Pirjal in the Jammu area, where strong forests provide terrorists with a perfect camouflage.
Although the security staff has managed to trace several of these new shelters, officials are increasingly worried about, especially after the intelligence entrances were obtained that terrorists were asked to stay in the higher and center of the ridges and take attacks when they were directed from the border.
“It is not a number of killings,” one official said, “it is a worrying trend that suggests that terrorists are now well introduced in these underground bunkers.” According to Lieutenant Gen. DS Hooda, who led successful surgery in 2016, these trenches and bunkers of high altitudes resemble tactics used by terrorists in 90 and early 2000.
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Lieutenant Gen. Hood, who commanded the strategic northern command, also described the main problem of the absence of human intelligence now, which was one of the main assets in previous counter -terrorism operations.
Nevertheless, he is convinced that the army will “reconsider his strategy” to deal with a new challenge.
The CEO of Puduchherry, B. Srinivas, who spent three decades with the police Jamm and Kashmir, repeated this evaluation and said that terrorists were forced to build these bunkers because they could no longer rely on shelters in cities and villages.
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With local people who are increasingly turning their backs to their separatist ideology, infiltrating terrorists are now using these secret trenches to avoid the detection of local residents now assuming that they are information.
That would be a repetition of what witnessed the “Sarp Vinash operation” in 2003, when the forces were able to target hidden terrorist camps in the Poonch area.
To face this new challenge, security agencies plan to use technology to face the threat and try to deploy basic radar (GPR), which caused drones and seismic sensors to deploy during operations against terrorization.
Drones can achieve hard -to -reach areas, while GPR and seismic sensors can identify underground cavities and structural changes on Earth, allowing the location of such underground bunkers.
The instant goal of the safety grid becomes obvious to improve intelligence in these forest belts and use these fresh tools to neutralize the remaining terrorists.
In the past, the army faced the threat of underground bunkers and male cavities, but it was in residential areas, especially in Pulwama, Kulgam and Shopian, in the years 2020-22.
Officials give examples and stated that in the middle of Rambi Ara there was a shelter known for its fluctuating water levels and often affected by lightning floods. Terrorists hid inside an iron bunker made in the middle of its. The soldiers saw the opening of an empty oil barrel, which the terrorists subsequently used to enter the bunker.
During this period, reports of multiple cavities began to appear in traditional households and underground bunkers.
The army covered with dense apple trees and located at a height and found another underground bunker in Bandpoh, where terrorists managed to create an underground room.
The bunker finally lay uncovered after the soldiers noticed a polyethylene leaf that covered nothing and the Earth nearby recently filled.
Another interesting strategy to hide and seeks the Labipora in Shopian, where the terrorists covered the iron box on the banks of the river and maintained a small pumpkin for breathing and at the same time hid underground.
Published – 14 September 2025 03:13 is
