Following the Pahalgam terror attack, the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) has put in place 43 temporary operating bases across Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) to step up action against militants hiding in remote mountain terrain. Security officials said on Wednesday that these bases are meant to help forces track down and eliminate terrorists taking refuge in the higher reaches of the Union Territory.
Of the 43 bases, 26 are located in the Kashmir division and 17 in the Jammu division. All are positioned at altitudes of 6,000 feet and above.
High-altitude operations
Each temporary base houses between 16 and 25 CRPF personnel. A small number of J&K Police personnel accompany them during operations. These camps are used for short durations, typically a few days at a time, before teams move to other locations based on intelligence inputs.
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As per a report by Times of India, officials said militants often use ‘dhoks’, mud and stone huts commonly found in mountainous areas, as temporary hideouts. According to security agencies, foreign terrorists operating in the region usually wait in such shelters for instructions from handlers based in Pakistan before carrying out attacks.
CRPF has procured specialised gear for these deployments, including tactical boots, winter jackets, sleeping bags and satellite phones, to support personnel operating in difficult terrain and harsh weather conditions.
Link to April 2025 attack
The first set of such temporary bases was set up in April 2025 along the Pahalgam-Tral-Harwan axis, soon after the Pahalgam attack. In that incident, terrorists had taken shelter in a 'dhok' near the tourist site in Baisaran before opening fire and killing 25 tourists. They later fled into the surrounding forests.
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Security forces launched extensive search operations in the forested belt that lasted for months. Using one of these temporary bases, CRPF and other forces were able to zero in on the hideout of the three attackers near the Dachigam area in Srinagar. The three Pakistanis involved in the attack were killed in Operation Mahadev in July 2025.
According to available data, around two local terrorists and nearly 100 foreign terrorists are currently active in the region.
