Kathua (Jammu): Any unfamiliar face that shows up in Mela, a predominantly Hindu village with a population of just over 2,500 people, in Jammu’s Kathua district, around 118 km south-east of Jammu city, is greeted with blank stares and wary suspicion from the locals gathered in small groups outside shops, houses and a shuttered temple.

Yet, upon hearing Amarjeet Sharma’s name, villagers quickly begin to recount stories of the ‘Doctor’s’ kind and helpful nature and the horror they experienced on 9 June 2024. 

Amarjeet Sharma, a 49-year-old chemist known as ‘Doctor’ by the locals, had a straightforward routine for over three decades. Each night around 10 PM, he would leave his house—at the edge of Mela’s forest area—walk a couple of hundred metres into the woods to check on his grazing cattle and return home within 10 minutes. 

On 9 June, after returning late from his shop, the only pharmacy in the village, Sharma went about his routine as usual. 

“He changed his clothes as soon as he got home and headed straight to the forest,” said Manju Sharma, his wife. “We were supposed to have dinner after he returned.”

But that night, Sharma did not return. 

“After about 15 minutes, I called him three times, but there was no answer,” said Manju Sharma, a soft-spoken 45-year-old. “I then went to check at my in-law’s place, but he wasn’t there either. After that, our family and some neighbours quickly went out to search for him.”

As the search extended into the forested area, Sharma’s 20-year-old son, Abhishek, found his father’s phone at the edge of the narrow road that leads into the forest. 

A few metres away, the search party came across Sharma lying face down in the bushes. 

“At first, we thought he had fallen ill and fainted,” Manju Sharma said. “But when we turned him over, he was dead. His throat was slashed.”

The next day, on 10 June, Sharma‘s family and other residents of Mela, carrying his body, blocked the Jammu-Pathankot National Highway and demanded the arrest of the killers. The protesters returned home on the Jammu & Kashmir Police’s assurance that they had registered a case in the Hiranagar Police Station, about four and a half kilometres from Mela, in Kathua district, against unidentified culprits 

For the people of Mela, Sharma’s murder was shocking not only because of its brutality but also because they had never heard of such a crime taking place in their village. 

“He had no animosity with anyone,” said Manju Sharma. “He was a devoted family man.”

“Everyone respected and cared for my brother as if he were their own family member,” said Ram Gopal Sharma, Amarjeet Sharma’s younger brother.  “If there was a medical emergency in our village, even at two in the morning, he wouldn’t hesitate to visit. That was just his nature. He was always willing to help villagers.”

Ram Gopal Sharma, a soldier in the Indian army, is certain that Amarjeet was not murdered by a civilian but by militants. 

“It seems that when my brother reached the forest, he might have seen someone guiding the militants,” he said. “Once the person’s identity was revealed, he probably instructed the militants to kill my brother.”

This belief isn’t restricted to the residents of Mela and Amarjeet’s family. 

“It is likely that Amarjeet’s murder was executed by Pakistan-infiltrated militants,” said A*, a J&K police official based in the Jammu division, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he is not authorised to talk to the press. “But, the investigation is still on.”

While any perpetrators are yet to be identified—the police are waiting for the Forensic Science Laboratory in Jammu to process the evidence—Ram Gopal Sharma continues to grapple with uncertainty about the future of his brother’s wife and two children.

“Who will take care of them?” Ram Gopal Sharma asked. “The government should give my nephew a job.” He also asked for the government to sponsor his 12-year-old niece’s education. 

Ram Gopal Sharma has also written to the union home minister, Amit Shah, and Manoj Sinha, the Jammu & Kashmir lieutenant governor, asking that they recognise his brother as a ‘victim of militancy’. 

“We want the government to declare that militants killed my brother,” he said. “His family should be compensated accordingly.”

Ram Gopal Sharma confirmed that the district administration had granted Amarjeet Sharma’s two children 3 lakh rupees.

A Shift In Patterns of Militancy

Since the start of the Pakistan-backed armed insurgency in Kashmir in 1989, the focus of militancy has predominantly been the Kashmir valley, with the armed movement failing to gain a strong ideological base in the Jammu region. 

While Jammu’s mountainous districts began to attract the attention of militant groups towards the end of the 1990s, by the end of the 2000s, militancy had largely ended in the Jammu division. It remained mostly confined to the Kashmir valley.

Almost a decade later, on 11 August 2019, a week after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government abrogated Jammu and Kashmir’s statehood and special constitutional status under Article 370 bringing it under the control of the centre, the union home minister Amit Shah said that the removal of Article 370 would lead to the end of terrorism in J&K. 

Since then, the security establishment’s crackdown on the militancy network in the region has seen a significant dip in militancy in the Kashmir valley. However, the relatively calm Jammu division of the union territory found itself in the line of fire.

According to South Asia Terrorism Portal(SATP) data,  for the five-year period from 2014 to 2018, 17 civilians and 40 security forces were killed in the Jammu division. For the five years from 2019 to 2023, 15 civilians and 50 security forces were killed.

In 2024, till 6 Aug, eleven civilians and 12 security forces were killed, a 415% jump in average monthly civilian deaths compared to the previous 10 years.

According to the SATP data, 2023 and 2024 are the first two years since 2014 where deaths in Jammu are higher than in Kashmir, with 18 civilian deaths and 32 security forces killed in Jammu compared to 11 civilian deaths and 17 security forces killed in Kashmir. 

On 11 October 2021, militants ambushed security forces in the Chamrer forest in Surankote tehsil of Poonch district, around 240 kilometres northwest of Jammu city, killing a junior commissioned officer and four other soldiers. 

Security forces had previously considered the Pir Panjal range, including the twin districts of Poonch and Rajouri, along the Line of Control, to be largely free of militancy following major anti-militancy operations, such as operation Sarp Vinash, almost two decades back.

Three days later, on 14 October, as forces expanded their operations to the Bhatta Durian forests in Mendhar, Poonch, militants struck again, killing four more soldiers. 

By the end of the week, as nine soldiers had lost their lives, a newly formed militant organisation, People's Anti-Fascist Force, an offshoot of the banned militant organisation Jaish-e-Mohammed, claimed responsibility for the attacks.

For the next two years, Pir Panjal saw some of the boldest militant strikes (here, here and here) that killed over a dozen soldiers, signalling a visible move of militancy towards Jammu. 

However, this year, militancy in the Jammu region changed altogether, with militants targeting civilians rather than Indian armed forces.

On 9 June 2024, the day Narendra Modi was sworn in as prime minister for his third consecutive term, militants attacked a bus carrying pilgrims in the Reasi district, just 70 kilometres north of Jammu city, causing it to fall into a gorge. The attack resulted in the deaths of nine people, including a two-year-old child, and left 43 others injured. 

Two days later, militants killed a Central Reserve Police Force(CRPF) trooper and injured a civilian in Kathua.

On 15 July, militants in the Desa Forest belt of the Doda district killed four more soldiers and a J&K Police cop. This was the second militancy incident in Doda this year. Four years earlier, on 29 June 2020, J&K Police had claimed that Doda had become “militancy free”.

These incidents show that militants have extended their activities south of the Pir Panjal range into areas of Jammu where, unlike parts of Kashmir, there is still no ideological support for them. Despite this lack of local backing, militants have managed to carry out several major attacks and successfully evaded security forces.

P*, another senior Jammu & Kashmir Police official, also based in the Jammu Division, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to talk to the press, said that the militants operating in different parts of the Jammu division are “well-trained Pakistan infiltrated militants”. “Here, they know the difficult terrain, dense forest cover and topography can keep them alive for months,” he added.

The targeted attacks in Kathua, Doda, and Reasi marked another step in an ongoing escalation of militancy in the Jammu region and brought a sudden wave of paranoia to the area.

‘What Was Omkar’s Fault?’

On 11 June 2024, two days after Amarjeet Sharma was killed, 56-year-old Omkar Dinanath from Sohal village in Kathua district, located about 3.5 kilometres away from Mela along a mountainous forest path, was going about his day. He made wooden rope cots, selling them for a profit of Rs 200 per cot, just enough to support himself and his wife.

In the evening, Dinanath joined some other villagers who had attended a religious event at the village’s biggest temple outside his house.

“At 7:45 PM, two men suddenly arrived in the village square and demanded water from the villagers,” said 67-year-old Mast Ram, former panch, a member of the Sohal village council. “One of the villagers realised these were not ordinary hunters but militants. He quickly alerted the rest of the village.”

As news of their presence spread, the militants realised their cover was blown and opened fire. One of the bullets struck Omkar Dinanath. His family said that he remained unconscious for two hours.

“One [militant] tried to throw a grenade, but it slipped from his hand and exploded,” said Mast Ram. “He died on the spot. The other militant managed to escape into a small forested area.”

Shortly after, security forces arrived and cordoned off the whole village. 

By the afternoon of 12 June, before the second militant was killed, a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel had been killed. Anand Jain, the additional director general of police in Jammu, said that both militants had infiltrated Jammu from Pakistan. 

J&K Police officials believe that the two militants may have been the ones involved in Amarjeet’s killing in Mela.

Omkar Dinanath underwent surgery to remove the bullet that had hit his left arm. He has yet to regain the full use of his hand.

“What will happen to Omkar?” said Mast Ram. “His left arm is completely handicapped now. How will he ever be able to work again?”

According to Mast Ram, Dinanath’s wife is differently abled and unable to work. “Now that Omkar cannot work, who will put the food on their plate?” Mast Ram added.

The villagers of Sohal also expressed their disappointment over the government's lack of support for Dinanath.

 “He was only rescued,” said a villager who wished to remain anonymous. “Beyond that, no support was provided.”

Fear, Panic & Uncertainty

Fear and uncertainty have taken a firm hold on the local population of the Jammu region, including Kathua and Reasi, areas severely impacted by lethal militant attacks over the past two months. 

“It’s been over 45 days since Amarjeet’s death, but people still avoid their fields,” said a relative of Amarjeet Sharma, who asked not to be identified. “Everyone is afraid for their lives.”

This atmosphere of heightened panic and dread is new to the region, as many of the recent attacks have occurred in areas that had largely been spared from direct attacks on its civilian population even during the peak of the insurgency in Jammu & Kashmir. 

“Our village had never seen militancy before this incident,” said Mast Ram of Sohal village. “We had always lived in peace, but that’s no longer the case.”

The sudden escalation of violence has amplified the sense of vulnerability among residents, who are unaccustomed to such threats impacting their daily lives. 

“Even if there’s a sound of a firecracker during the day, the entire village rushes indoors, and every house is locked,” said Mast Ram, describing the fear that has pervaded the village after the incident on 11 June. 

Mast Ram and other villagers recalled that when militancy began spreading to different areas of the Jammu region in the mid-1990s, Sohal village was an exception and had never faced a militant threat. 

“At one point, when VDCs [Village Defense Committees] were active across Jammu, our VDC members returned their guns to the government,” said Mast Ram. “That’s how peaceful it used to be here.”

In 1995, following an increase in militant attacks on the Hindu minority in the remote areas of the Jammu region, the Government of India established Village Defense Committees (VDC). These committees were primarily made up of civilians who received arms training from the government and were then equipped with guns to supplement the security offered by the armed forces.

The recent attacks in the Jammu division have triggered an increase in the demand for guns and the return of the VDCs. 

“The situation here is not normal,” said Darshan Sharma, a Samkhial village resident about 9 km from Sohal in Samba. “We’ve submitted a list of 50 volunteers to the police, requesting they be armed. We need to defend ourselves.”

Sharma explained that if an attack were to occur, armed villagers could hold off the militants until the security forces arrived. 

P, the senior J&K Police official quoted earlier, told Article 14 that after the Reasi attack, police have begun to implement a “more VDC, more training and more guns to the civilian” model to ensure that such attacks are not repeated.

Former Northern Army commander lieutenant general D S Hooda (retired) noted that the recent militant incidents in Hindu-majority Jammu appear to target civilians of specific demographics. Hooda suggested that one possible reason for the shift of militancy to Jammu is the potential for these incidents to take on a communal colour in the region. 

“Terrorists will do what they have to do—create panic and fear—but the outcome could be very different in Jammu compared to Kashmir,” he said. 

‘I Fall Asleep In Tears And Wake Up In Tears’

On the evening of 1 January 2023, two unidentified militants entered Dhangri village of Rajouri district, approximately 145 km from Jammu district, and opened fire on the villagers. 

The seven victims, including two children, who were killed were Hindu. 

The first casualty in Dhangri was 23-year-old Deepak Kumar, who had spent the day packing for his journey to Leh, where he was supposed to join the Indian Army's ordnance department in two days.

Around 6 pm, he went for a haircut. When he was on his way home, just a few metres from his house, two militants arrived in the village. 

“They caught him on the road and asked him for his identification card,” said Saroj Bala, his mother. “Then they shot him in the head.”

Hearing the gunshots, Bala’s younger son, 21-year-old Prince Sharma, stepped outside. The militants shot him in the stomach. 

“Deepu [Deepak] was already dead,” Saroj Bala recalled. “Prince might have survived [the gunshot wound], but the militants kicked him 18 times.”

Prince Sharma died a week after the attack at the Government Medical College hospital in Jammu city.

Saroj Bala said she has little recollection of how she managed to save herself amid the chaos. 

She had lost her husband, Rajinder Kumar, to cancer in 2018. 

“I used to mourn my husband's death,” she said, “Now, I mourn the death of my two sons.”

Her younger son, Prince Sharma, recently started working as a plumber in the J&K government’s Jal Shakti department. Finally, after years of repeated attempts, Deepak also secured a stable job with the Indian army.

“Deepu’s dream of joining the army had finally come true. We were all celebrating,” said Saroj Bala. “How could I have known it would be the last time I would see my sons?”

Even though it's been over 18 months since both her sons were killed, Saroj Bala said that their killers were still roaming free. 

“I have no one left now,” Saroj Bala said. “I want to ask the killers of my children what their mistake was and why they were killed. I want justice for my children.”

She added, “Since I lost my children, I fall asleep in tears and wake up in tears.”

(Zaid Bin Shabir is an independent journalist based in Jammu & Kashmir.)

Get exclusive access to new databases, expert analyses, weekly newsletters, book excerpts and new ideas on democracy, law and society in India. Subscribe to Article 14.