The recovery of an Austrian assault rifle from two dead foreign terrorists in Jammu & Kashmir’s Keran sector on July 18 has added a new and complex dimension to the ongoing terrorism in J&K.

The first weapon seized from the militants in J&K was on September 12, 1988, when the militants attacked the residence of then Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) Ali Mohammad Watali in the Raj Bagh residential area of ​​Srinagar city.

One militant, identified as Aijaz Dar, who lived in the nearby Jawahar Nagar area, was killed in retaliatory firing by the guards at the DIG’s residence. An assault rifle was recovered from him.

Another senior police officer, Shaikh Owais, was the Superintendent of Police (SP) of Srinagar at the time. Owais was one of the first senior officers to reach the DIG’s residence as he also lived in the same area.

This was a weapon that was not in use by the police, and it was also not the standard weapon issued to the army at that time. During a meeting of experts summoned by the army, the weapon was identified as Kalashnikov.

It belonged to a family of assault rifles, also known as AK platform, AK rifle or simply AK, based on the original design of Mikhail Kalashnikov. Experts identified the rifle as AK-47, officially known as the Avtomat Kalashnikova, the original firearm of the Kalashnikov family of rifles.

It was developed in the Soviet Union in the mid-20th century by Russian small arms designer Mikhail Kalashnikov.

“The name AK-47 stands for Automat Kalashnikova 1947, the year it was first produced. In 1949, the AK-47 became the assault rifle of the Soviet army,” an officer said.

Over the years, starting in 1988, the militants began using long-range sniper rifles and also subsequent versions of the AK series of rifles, such as the AK-54 and AK-74, which indicated the year of manufacture of the rifle and improvements over the original AK-47 version.

Till then, J&K police were not provided with AK series assault rifles. Later, to counter the firepower of the enemy, police, paramilitary and army were also provided with AK series assault rifles, besides the Indian made INSAS rifles.

“The possession of AK assault rifles by the militants clearly showed that they were trained and given weapons by trainers from the Pakistani army. Due to the Russian presence in Afghanistan and Pakistan’s support to the Afghan militias, there were plenty of AK rifles in Pakistan as there was virtually no border between the two countries at that time,” a senior intelligence officer said.

When militancy evolved into outright terrorism in the mid-1990s with the arrival of foreign mercenaries in J&K, the terrorists increasingly turned to improvised weapons such as the AK-54, AK-74 and under-barrel grenade launchers (UBGLs).

With the foreign mercenaries battle-hardened, the security forces had to meet the growing challenge by deploying paratroopers and mountain-fighting trained personnel in their counter-terrorism operations in J&K.

“The J&K police also underwent a major change in the training of commandos, use and expertise of modern assault rifles and intensive training in developing stamina and focus. The commitment to eradicate terrorism and usher in peace was the prelude to such training,” said a senior police officer who oversaw the physical and weapons training of the local police.

Paramilitary forces like the BSF and the CRPF were not left behind in ramping up their forces to maximum efficiency level to combat terrorism in different parts of the country.

As terrorism gained ground, namely through foreign mercenaries lured into J&K from abroad, motivated and indoctrinated by religious fanaticism and the lure of money, the bosses and their masters in the Pakistani army started encouraging them with better weapons.

On July 11, 2022, an M4 carbine rifle was recovered from a spot in Awantipora area of ​​Pulwama district of Jammu and Kashmir, where Jaish-e-Muhammad commander Kaiser Koka and another terrorist were killed.

This presented a new challenge to the security forces. The M4 carbine also replaced most submachine guns and select handguns in U.S. military service, as it fired more effective rifle ammunition that offered superior stopping power and was better able to penetrate modern body armor.

“A revision had become necessary of the bulletproof vests issued to the security forces. The older version of the BP jacket would not be sufficient to meet the new challenge.

“Better and lighter BP jackets have been provided to the security forces fighting terrorism and these are designed to stop armour-piercing bullets,” said another senior police official deployed in counter-terrorism operations.

Although the M4 assault rifle was made in the US and issued to the US Army, it is clear that when the US troops left Afghanistan, they left behind some of their advanced weapons which fell into the hands of the Afghan fighters. This assault rifle found its way to J&K via Pakistan.

On July 17, 2024, two foreign terrorists were killed by the army while foiling an infiltration attempt across the LoC in the Keran sector.

A Steyr AUG assault rifle was found among the killed terrorists.

“The StG 77 (Sturmgewehr 77) is the designation given by the Austrian Armed Forces when they adopted the Steyr AUG in 1977. This is the standard assault rifle issued to the Austrian Army.

“The Steyr bullpup assault rifle is only rivaled by the Israeli-made Tavor assault rifle.

“Tavor is a gas-operated, selective-fire bullpup assault rifle built around a long-stroke piston system. The main goal behind the development of Tavor is to maximize reliability, durability, simplicity of design and maintenance-free, especially under adverse or battlefield conditions.

“The Tavor has semi-automatic, burst and full-automatic modes in standard 5.56x45mm ammunition. It is considered more reliable and accurate than the US M4 carbine and the Austrian Steyr. The Tavor TAR-21 has 30-round magazines,” a weapons expert said.

“As the security forces fighting terrorism in J&K are facing numerous challenges, weapon systems, armoured clothing and other equipment used by our security forces are being regularly and continuously checked.

“A few M4 carbines or Austrian bullpup assault rifles cannot save the terrorist from a professionally trained and highly modernised Indian army,” the senior intelligence officer said.

For obvious reasons, none of the intelligence, security or military experts who spoke to IANS wanted to be named.

(Except for the headline, this story, which is from a syndicated feed, has not been edited by Odishatv.in staff)

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