Lashkar’s Sajjid Jutt module behind Rajouri terror attack

While the Indian Army has launched full-scale counter-terrorist operations in Kandi Forest in the Bhata Dhurian area of the Rajouri sector to avenge the killing of five of its troopers on Friday, the needle of suspicion for the attack is on Kotli (Occupied Kashmir) based module of Pakistan based Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) group.

According to inputs available from Jammu and Kashmir and the South Block, there is a possibility of two groups of LeT terrorists in the Rajouri-Poonch sector with local support but this stands to positive confirmation. It is understood that one group comprising two-three Pakistanis along with three local terrorists were involved in the April 20 attack on an Army vehicle in theBhata-Dhurian area, killing five Indian Army troopers. Given the scale of attack and ambush on the 9 Para commandos, the security agencies believe that there could be another group of five terrorists with two Pakistanis at core operating in the area.

While there is no word from the Army, casualties are expected on the terrorist side too as Indian troopers have gone into full fire-fighting mode.

According to security agencies, the Kandi forest terror attacks are being handled from across the LoC in Kotli in Occupied Kashmir by Lashkar commander Habibullah Malik alias Sajjid Jutt alias Sajjid Langda along with Reyaz Ahmed alias Qasim, a resident of Mahore Reasi in the Jammu region, and currently based in LeT headquarters in Muridke in Lahore, and Rafiq Nai alias Sultan, a resident of Mendhar in Poonch, who is currently residing in Pakistan.

While Sajjid Jutt, a resident of Kasur in Punjab, Pakistan, is the operational commander of the LeT in Jammu and Kashmir, he is also instrumental in coordinating terrorist activities like recruitment, weapons, smuggling and terror financing in South Kashmir. Married to a Kashmiri, Jutt is also involved in the drone dropping of arms and ammunition in the Jammu region for terrorist cadre in Kashmir. He is the prime suspect behind the Rajouri attacks on the Indian security forces.

The other prime suspect is Reyaz Ahmed, who has been spotted in the Mirpur-Kotli area of PoK. Involved in drone operations for the LeT in the Rajouri-Poonch area, Qasim also provides logistics to terrorists using his local networks. He was involved in facilitating terrorists who orchestrated the attack at Dhangri on January 1, 2023.

Part of the Jutt terror module, Rafiq Nai aka Sultan has been involved in smuggling of drugs, weapons, and infiltration of terrorists for the LeT in Poonch-Rajouri sector. He along with Jutt handled the terrorists who attacked the Indian Army troopers in the same Bhata Dhurian forest area in 2021 as a result of which nine Indian soldiers were killed in the fire-fight.

After losing 10 troopers in a fortnight, the Indian Army is not only taking the terrorists head-on but also reviewing their own counter-terror tactics so that they do not take any more casualties. Top Indian security officials along with Army commanders are on their way to Srinagar today to review the entire terror attack and intelligence available on the LeT terrorists in the Kandi Forest area.