Director General of J&K Police Gurbhachan Jagat told ENS today that he had directed Superintendent of Police, Doda, Farooq Khan, to hold meetings with his counterpart in Chamba (HP) and formulate an action plan for increasing the vigil along the border of the two states. Jagat further said senior police officers of HP would also be kept informed about the joint strategy to be adopted.

Official sources said that high on the agenda at the meeting would be to finalise modalities for joint operation by the State Task Force (STF) of the Doda Police and the Chamba Police in the border areas including Sumbain Khud where, of late, militant presence has been noticed.

Suspected J&K militants recently gunned down four persons fromHimachal Pradesh at Sumbain khud who had gone from Salooni tehsil of Chamba district to collect herbs from the forest. This was second militancy-related incident in the last one year in the area. Last year, militants kidnapped 23 persons who had also gone to collect herbs from the forest.

Intelligence sources said the initial investigations into the Sumbain Khud incidents had revealed that the militants belonging to the Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) group could have been involved in the killing of the four Salooni victims. ``It is only the HM militants who are active in the Sumbain Khud area. There is every probability that the killing could have been a handiwork of the group,'' an officer in the Counter-Intelligence unit said.

It is believed that the killing was carried out to prevent movement of civilian population in the forest area which serves as a safe hiding place for the militants. ``The forest in this area is dense and this guarantees the militants a safe hideout. And what alarmed the militants waslocal people from Salooni coming to these forests for herbs. This way the militant presence could have become obvious. By killing the people, they want to send across a signal to the villagers not to tread in the area,'' a police officer in the State Task Force said.

Even though the police officials rule out the possibility, as of now, of militants crossing over to Himachal Pradesh for carrying out subversive activities but favoured timely action to prevent any major strike in the future. ``We have to ensure that the militants don't enjoy a free run in the area. If timely and coordinated steps are not taken, we could have major problems in the area,'' a police officer here confided.