The Indian Army knew about the terrorist camps at Hill Kaka in Surankote sector of Jammu region since early 2000, Farooq Abdullah, former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister, claimed on Wednesday.
The camps were busted early this year in a phased army operation codenamed Sarp Vinash.
Ridiculing reports that the state machinery was silent about the terrorists, Abdullah, said, "I have been raising the issue with the army in every meeting of the Unified Headquarters but saw no action."
The former chief minister said he had no idea why the army delayed the operation. "Maybe they had some operational requirement," he said.
"Well, they have faced the damage as maximum of militants are reported to have fled the Hill Kaka region and are now entrenched in other areas of Doda, Udhampur, Rajouri and Kishtawar, killing people at their whim," Abdullah said.
Asked when he received the information, he said, "The information started trickling first from the Intelligence Bureau, which was further substantiated by the state police."
"As a fall out of these reports, the Indian Air Force had taken a decision of not flying their helicopters around this region," Abdullah said.
Abdullah said the former state director general of police A K Suri and the additional director general of police (intelligence) had held several rounds of meetings with army authorities for flushing out the militants, but their plea fell on deaf ears.
"May be the army was busy in carrying out operations in Kupwara, Doda and higher reaches of the Rajouri region," he said.
The former chief minister said alarm bells started ringing only after 19 people were brutally massacred in the Hill Kaka region.