NEW DELHI: When defence minister AK Antony said Pakistan army ’s "specialist troops" were involved in the attack that killed five Indian soldiers in the Poonch district of Jammu & Kashmir on Tuesday, he was actually pointing to the involvement of the elite Special Services Group (SSG).

Army sources, in fact, said the well-planned, military-style ambush of the soldiers around 450 metres inside Indian territory was probably the handiwork of the " Musa company " of the Pakistan army’s SSG, which consists of special forces commandos trained for covert and irregular missions behind enemy lines, in conjunction with terrorists.

The "imprint" of SSG was also clear in the beheading of an Indian soldier and the mutilation of another’s body by a Pakistan "border action team (BAT)" in the Mendhar sector on January 8. This was then confirmed by Army chief General Bikram Singh himself.

This time too, after Gen Bikram Singh visited Kashmir on Wednesday to talk to the local commanders and "piece together" the well-planned, military-style ambush that killed the five Indian soldiers, he briefed Antony before the minister made his statement in Parliament.

"It is now clear the specialist troops of Pakistan Army were involved in this attack when a group from PoK crossed the LoC and killed our brave jawans. We all know that nothing happens from Pakistan’s side of the line of control without support, assistance, facilitation and often, direct involvement of the Pakistan army," said Antony.

"Those in Pakistan who are responsible for this tragedy and the brutal killing of two soldiers earlier this year should not go unpunished. Pakistan should also show determined action to dismantle the terrorist networks, organizations and infrastructure and show tangible movement on bringing those responsible for the Mumbai terrorist attack in November 2008 to justice quickly," he added.

Though its first battalion was raised in the mid-1950s, the SSG came into its own when General Pervez Musharraf was the president of Pakistan from 2001 to 2008. Musharraf, as a young officer, had served in SSG from 1966 to 1972, which included a stint as a SSG company commander during the 1971 war.

"The SSG had three battalions (each with 700 personnel) till 2004. Four more battalions were raised between 2004 and 2006, tasked differently for missions in mountains, deserts or plains. Moreover, Pakistan army has three independent commando companies — Musa for amphibious operations and Zarrar for counterterrorism," said an Army officer.

The SSG commandos, or the "black storks" as they are called due to their uniform colour, are said to have made daring raids on Indian Army positions during the 1971 war even as the Pakistan army was thrashed by Indian forces. The SSG commandos were also among the first batches of intruders which crossed the LoC into Kargil in 1999 to establish fortified positions in the icy heights that finally led to an armed conflict between the two countries.

