Incidents of retired Pakistan army soldiers working with terrorists and committing acts of terror in Jammu and Kashmir have come to light

That the Pakistan Army provides overt and covert support to terrorists and trains them was known for three decades, but the involvement of retired Pak army soldiers in terrorism is a phenomena that is now being studied within the security establishment here.

Sources said at least two such incidents had come to light in recent times. One of the terrorists killed in the Kalakote encounter at Rajouri in Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday has been identified as a retired soldier of the Pakistan army. In August this year, a retired havildar of the Pakistan army was killed on the Indian side.

He was with a group of armed militants. The sources said there were a few possibilities. One was that these retired soldiers had turned mercenaries and were working on a payment basis with terror organisations. The second was that retired soldiers had got radicalised and opted to join the ranks of terrorists. Thirdly, since there was a paucity of local youth wanting to pick up the gun, Pakistan was now relying on retired soldiers.

Yesterday, Lt Gen Upendra Dwivedi, Northern Army Commander, had stated that some active terrorists and a few who were killed in Jammu and Kashmir were retired soldiers of the Pakistan army.

As there were no local recruits at present, Pakistan was trying to push in foreign terrorists, who were being eliminated by the security forces under different operations, General Dwivedi said.

The sources said it was taking time to eliminate these terrorists as being from a military background, they were better trained and had a greater resilience. Some of them may have operated in Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, the Army yesterday recovered war-like stores from the encounter site in Kalakote, Rajouri. Medicines, medical equipment and clothing used by high-altitude trekkers were also recovered.

2 Cases Surface

One of the terrorists killed in the Kalakote encounter at Rajouri on Thursday has been identified as a retired Pak soldier
In August this year, a retired havildar of the Pak army was killed on the Indian side. He was with a group of armed militants