Though the Sunjwan military station is well-guarded and fortified with 8-10-foot high boundary wall, it became the target of terrorist attack for the second time in 15 years, the last being in 2003 when 12 soldiers were killed.
While the Army is maintaining that fidayeen squad of Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) entered the camp after a gunfight with the sentry guard in the wee hours of Saturday, the heavily armed terrorists seemed to have managed their entry on Friday night itself having lied low in a nullah adjacent to the boundary wall at the rear side of the camp.
In their signature style, the JeM cadre launched the strike before daybreak by occupying family quarters in a bid to prolong the stand-off inside the Army camp.
The fidayeen squad which stormed Pathankot airbase on January 2, 2016 had used the similar modus operandi before launching the strike in the early hours. Later on Pakistan-based fidayeen squads adopted similar tactic while attacking Uri Army camp and Nagrota Army camp on September 19 and November 29 in 2016 respectively.
Now the question arises when Intelligence agencies had forewarned about the possibility of big terrorist strike on vital Army installations between February 9 and 11 in Jammu & Kashmir coinciding with the death anniversaries of Mohd Afzal Guru and Mohd Maqbool Bhat, the security forces failed to prevent the same.
Interestingly, Army commander, Western Command, Lt-Gen Surinder Singh had also reviewed security situation during his two-day long visit to Samba and Pathankot sectors on February 8-9.
As of now it is not clear whether the group which stormed the military station infiltrated from across the border or was sheltered by a network of over ground workers (OGW) for past few days in Jammu. The multi-agency command centre is closely tracking the intercepts to ascertain the route taken by the fidayeen group to reach Sunjwan military station.
The possibility that the group may have travelled to Jammu from within the State cannot be ruled out as security forces fear terrorist handlers might have successfully carved out safe hideouts in Jammu in the recent weeks to launch major terror strikes.
Unconfirmed reports claimed the members of the fidayeen squad might have been dropped at the location by the members of their local sleeper cell to avoid getting trapped en route due to several active security pickets along the periphery wall of the military station.
It appears the members of the fidayeen squad or their sympathisers have conducted recee of the entire area and had decided to enter from the same spot.
Since the periphery wall of the military station is dotted with sentry posts and is manned round the clock, the terrorist handlers might have studied the pattern and synchronised their entry without facing any resistance.
After the fidayeen strike on Pathankot, Uri and Nagrota Army camps, the periphery security was beefed up. The main entry and exit gates were well fortified and the Army had installed high resolution cameras to keep a tight vigil on the movement of the suspected people yet the fidayeen squad managed to breach the multi-layer security grid and gained access inside the military station.