Jammu: The Jammu and Kashmir Police on Sunday announced the arrest of two terrorists in Poonch district during an intelligence-backed raid. Weapons and ammunition were later recovered based on information provided by the accused.

The two arrested men were identified as Tariq Sheikh from Azamabad and Riyaz Ahmad, both residents of Chamber village in Poonch. They were taken into custody during a raid.

“After questioning them, the police team raided the rented accommodation of Tariq Sheikh at Jallian village and recovered the weapons, including two assault rifles and some ammunition. Further interrogation of the terrorists is still going on,” police said.

The Army, which secures the 740-km-long Line of Control (LoC), remains on high alert to prevent infiltration from across the border, while police and security forces continue targeted anti-terror operations in the union territory.

These operations are target specific, including terrorists, their overground workers (OGWs) and sympathisers.

In the anti-terrorist operations, it is not only the gun-wielding terrorist, but the entire ecosystem of terrorists that is aimed to be completely dismantled.

Hawala money rackets, drug smuggling and drug peddling are also on the radar of the intelligence agencies and the security forces. The roots of most of the hawala money rackets and drug smuggling operations have been traced to handlers of terrorists sitting across the border. It is believed that the funds generated by these rackets are ultimately used to sustain terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir.

In many cases, the handlers of terrorism across the border have used drones to drop payloads of arms and ammunition, money, and drugs to be used by the terrorists to sustain their activities in the union territory.

The Border Security Force (BSF) guarding the international border in Jammu, Samba and Kathua districts has deployed special anti-drone equipment to locate and bring down these UAVs used by the handlers of terrorism.

IANS