There is no official word by the Army on the issue (Representational)

Dormant routes have been used by the Pakistani Army to infiltrate nearly 60 terrorists since the scrapping of Jammu and Kashmir's special status, officials told PTI on Tuesday.

This assessment comes amid intelligence inputs that there has been a surge in infiltration from across the border through higher reaches of North Kashmir and Poonch and Rajouri of the Jammu region, they said.

There is, however, no official word from the Army on the matter.

During a recent meeting to ascertain the number of successful and unsuccessful infiltration attempts along the Line of Control, an Army representative was presented with a host of evidence collected by various agencies about infiltration by terrorists from higher reaches of Gurez, Machil and Gulmarg sectors of the Kashmir region, and Poonch and Rajouri areas in Jammu region, the officials said.

Director General of Jammu and Kashmir Police Dilbagh Singh had earlier said that several infiltration bids have taken place at the Line of Control and majority of them have been foiled.

He had not ruled out the possibility that some may have crossed over and said the matter was being looked into.

The higher reaches of Gulmarg, a portion of which is under the command of Srinagar-based XV corps and another under Nagrota (Jammu)-based XVI corps, was used in early 1990s for infiltration into central Kashmir.

In 2014, the Army was caught by surprise when a terrorist Naveed, arrested after a suicide bid on a BSF vehicle at Udhampur, told interrogators that they had crossed over from ''Ustad Post'' in higher reaches of Gulmarg and reached the Kashmir valley.

However, now it seems that the same route has been used to enter the Valley, the officials said, adding some of these terrorists had been sighted in various parts of Budgam and Pulwama in South Kashmir.

The officials said a group of terrorists shifted to Baba Reshi area before moving via Pakherpora to highly-volatile Pulwama district, where they have set up their permanent base.

Another group has moved into the central district of Budgam, the officials said.

They also said a group infiltrated from Gurez, Machil, Tangdhar sectors under the cover of heavy artillery firing.

Another cause of worry for the security agencies is an axis along the Poonch area in Jammu region from where small groups have managed to sneak in and reach Shopian in South Kashmir.

They could have possibly used Hill Kaka route to enter into Shopian, the officials said.