The ongoing 'seek and destroy' operation launched by varied security force formations in Kathua district of Jammu and Kashmir (JK) has bared the "security vacuum" prevalent in the hinterland plains of the International Border (IB) and the upper reaches beyond.
A district notorious for infiltrations, at least two groups of the Kashmir Tigers, a shadowy front of the banned Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Toiba, breached the IB in the last week. They made headway into the upper reaches of Kathua before some were shot in the Jakhole-Juthana area on March 27, 2025, at great cost to security force personnel.
The missing grid
Unlike the hinterland of the LoC, there is in Kathua no "reception area", or a tight, networked grid spearheaded by the counter-insurgency force, the Rashtriya Rifles (RR), to detect, ambush and eliminate Pakistani terrorists who sneak past the regular Infantry formations placed on the LoC. This is because Kathua, which sits at the trijunction of JK, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh, is not under the operational command of the Nagrota-headquartered 16 Corps (a Northern Command formation) responsible for the LoC in Jammu division.
Kathua falls under the Area of Responsibility (AoR) largely of 29 Infantry Division of the Western Command's 9 Corps headquartered at Yol in Himachal Pradesh. Kathua, thus, sits uncomfortably at the far-out geographical limits and diffused focus of Chandimandir's conventional operations mandate. The 9 'Rising Star' Corps was raised in April 2005 to relieve the 16 Corps of the IB sector of Jammu-Kathua-Samba and let the new Corps focus on conventional operations in the Shakargarh bulge of the IB.
Detected but not stopped in time
After a group of five terrorists were first detected on March 23, 2025, about 5 km from the IB in the Hiranagar sector of Kathua by a couple in a forest close to Saniyal Jolka village, the terrorists groups were subsequently detected on multiple occasions by villagers as they made their way towards the upper reaches of Kathua. The first responder invariably was either the JK Police or the Special Operations Group (SOG) of the Police. Lacking in capabilities to throw a tight cordon around the terrorists or engage them in the darkness with night-vision capabilities, the terrorists made good their escape, walking over 30 km since March 23, 2025, to reach the Jakhole-Juthana bush ravines where they were engaged and cordoned off.
Once infiltrating terrorists manage to locate to the higher reaches of Kathua in the Billawar-Machhedi belt, they disperse further into Kishtwar and Doda, or can lie low in neighbouring Himachal. Villagers report multiple sightings of terrorist groups moving through the Kathua hinterland plains into the higher reaches through known routes such as the Unjh river course but also cite an inadequate response of the security establishment by way of surveillance, human and tech intelligence, and ambushes.
Galwan fallout
The parallel vacuum created in the security grid in JK was felt acutely when the HQs of the RR's Counter-Insurgency Force (CIF) Uniform was moved from Reasi-Udhampur along with a section of its formations to Eastern Ladakh in the wake of the 2020 Galwan clashes. The vacuum thus created south of Rajouri-Pooch by the removal of the CIF Uniform buffer was exploited by Pakistani terrorists supported by an entrenched over-ground worker (OGW) network in the years 2021-2025.
Similarly, the lack of a well-positioned and seasoned counter-terrorist grid in the hinterland of the Kathua IB translated into the CRPF, BSF, regular Infantry battalions and NSG joining the Police first responders in throwing huge, ad hoc cordons where the terrorists were sighted by villagers over the last week. The mobilisation was slow, ponderous and costly, and the fleet-footed terrorists had inevitably made their escape.
Veteran Army officers, who are well versed with the dualities of command and control in JK, point to the need for a review of Kathua's operational jurisdictions. "In Kathua, the issue is that the IB falls under the Ministry of Home Affairs as the BSF guards the border and beyond that is 9 Corps which is under the Ministry of Defence. Whereas under 16 Corps, the LoC and the hinterland is under the Army. The DGP of JK coordinates well with the 16 Corps HQs but 9 Corps HQs at Yol is quite a distance off. I would want that a review be carried out and we can, possibly, transfer some of the elements under 9 Corps to the operational command of 16 Corps for CI-Ops in Kathua," Lt. Gen. DS Hooda (retd.), who commanded the 16 Corps and Northern Command, told this columnist.
Has the Police and allied central armed police forces (CAPF) done their task to secure the rear areas of Kathua? What has been the vision of the Unified HQs for JK?
"I would like to know how many Police chowkis are there in Kathua. Are there village defence groups (VDGs) in Kathua and ex-servicemen given licences for weapons? The first step to rectify the adverse situation would be to carry out a thorough assessment of the ground in Kathua by marking out the vulnerable areas, and also weigh in the sociological, educational and demographic profile and its fluid dynamics. If 9 Corps has to be made responsible for the counter-insurgency grid, then its force levels need to be augmented," Maj. Gen. Raj Mehta (retd.), a former chief of staff at 9 Corps HQs and one who has served seven tenures in JK, told this columnist.
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