Srinagar/New Delhi, Nov 19: Pakistan is exploiting the International Border (IB) in Punjab and Jammu area to push in maximum number of terrorists before the onset of winters, intelligence agency official said on Thursday.

A senior intel officer said that Pakistan is making deliberate attempts to push terrorists and lately started exploiting Punjab and Jammu sector.

He also said that on Thursday morning itself four terrorists belonging to Pakistan-based terrorist outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) travelling in a truck were killed in an encounter near Nagrota in Jammu area. Jammu and Kashmir: Four Terrorists Eliminated, Constable Injured in Nagrota Encounter.

They were neutralised in an encounter at Ban Toll Plaza Jammu. They infiltrated from the international border area in Samba sector and were on the way to Srinagar region.

On Wednesday night they infiltrated in to Indian soil when Pakistan resorted to unprovoked heavy firing using mortars and heavy machine guns in the Samba sector.

Thereafter, the Border Security Force alerted the security establishments across the union territory about the Pakistani attempt to push terrorists in India.

The terrorists have started using the sectors along the IB to infiltrate due to the strong anti-infiltration grid established by the Indian security forces along the Line of Control (LoC).

Pakistan is unable to infiltrate neither terrorists nor weapons into the valley to increase violence levels in the valley via the LoC.

"Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence has been given an ultimatum to push in maximum infiltrators along with weapons into Kashmir before onset of winters, when the undergrowth/bushes in most infiltration prone areas will die down due to dew and snowfall," Indian intelligence has alerted security establishment.

So they are using international border in Jammu and Punjab sectors.

Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) is based at Bahawalpur in Pakistan. The JeM's primary motive is to separate Kashmir from India and merge it into Pakistan. Since its inception in 2000, the group has carried out several attacks in Jammu and Kashmir. It portrays Kashmir as a "gateway" to the entire India, whose Muslims are also deemed to be in need of liberation.

"After liberating Kashmir, it aims to carry its 'Ghazawa-E-Hind (make all the Indians forcibly convert to Islam) in other parts of India, with an intent to drive Hindus and other non-Muslims from the Indian subcontinent," the intelligence agencies had stated.

JeM was created with the support of Pakistan's ISI which uses it to fight in Kashmir and other places, and continues to provide it backing.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 19, 2020 02:30 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).