India, Nov. 25 -- The lacklustre township of Nagrota, just outside the unplanned concrete of Jammu city, was once best-known for housing the largest military corps in the world, White Knights Corps or the XVI Corps, as also for rehabilitating fleeing Kashmiri Pandit migrants from the Valley. The small garrison town snakes around the lifeline of the Jammu-Kashmir highway, which connects the Jammu plains to the Kashmir valley, bisected by the Pir Panjal ranges and the minor Trikuta mountains, which harbour the Vaishno Devi shrine in one of its heights, along with the Nagrota dwelling, in its foothills. Another 54 km down the same road is the Indian Army's Northern Command headquarters at Udhampur.

The conspicuous presence of the Indian mil...