Around 200 terrorists are currently active in Jammu and Kashmir, and just 26 terrorists could enter the Union Territory from across the border so far this year, DGP J&K police had said on Thursday

Jammu: Ahead of the Independence Day on August 15, the security forces on Saturday busted a terror-financing network in Jammu that was assisting Pakistan based terrorist organisation Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).

"On inputs about a terror-financing network in Jammu that is assisting Lashkar-e-Taiba, Special Operations Group (SOG) Jammu interrogated one Mudasir Farooq Bhat. During interrogation, he admitted about his links with LeT," news agency ANI quoted Mukesh Singh, Inspector General of Police, Jammu, as saying.

After interrogating Bhat, the police got to know about other associates and arrested five men who were also helping the terror group in carrying out terrorist activities.

"On further interrogation, we gathered more information from MF Bhat and arrested five other people associated with Lashkar-e-Taiba - Tauqir Ahmad Bhat, Asif Bhat, Khalid Latif Bhat, Gazi Iqbal and Tariq Hussain Mir, the Jammu IGP said.

Singh further stated that there was no specific input whether they were planning to carry out attacks on August 15. However, they wanted to reactive the group to plan something big in the near future.

"We don't have any specific information regarding any activity that they were planning on the August 5 or 15, but yes the attempt was to reactivate and probably, they were planning something bigger in future," he said.

'Less Than 200 Terrorists Active In J&K'

Earlier on Thursday, Director-General of Jammu and Kashmir Police Dilbag Singh had said that security situation as improving in the Union Territory as the security forces have successfully managed to curtail the number of active terrorists to less than 200 from 300 to 350 terrorists a few years ago with its anti-terrorism operations. 

"There has been 75 per cent more firing from across the border in the first seven months of 2020. There were 487 incidents of firing from Pakistan till July this year in comparison to 267 such incidents in the same period in 2019. The firings are cover to infiltrate terrorists. So far, just 26 terrorists could infiltrate into Jammu and Kashmir," Singh had said.

"Eighty local youths have joined terrorism this year so far of which 38 were killed and 22 arrested. Just 20 of those who have joined terrorism are active now," he had added.