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| Not quite quiet on borders | | | Early Times Reporter
Jammu | July 14
India and Pakistan are resuming their talks later this week to push the Kashmir specific Confidence Building Measures but things are quite not at ease on the borders.
The summer months when the snow melts and crops along border areas stand tall to a man's height are always perfect for infiltration and the guerillas on other side are taking full advantage of the situation. One after the other there are reports of infiltrations from several points across the Line of Control from Nowshera to Poonch. Sources say that the trend has picked up manifold in past few weeks.
"The infiltration has picked up and there have been serious incidents of firing from across", said an Army officer. Showing deep concern over the rising level of infiltration which matched the trends of the period before 2003, he said, "It is almost a throwback to the pre-ceasefire days". The infiltration, he said, is taking place on a scale "not seen before in the past five years".
Though there is a border ceasefire between India and Pakistan since 2003 but in recent months the troopers on the other side of divide –Line of Control and International Border –have often been seen resorting to unprovoked firing to facilitate entry of militants. There have been occasional allegations from India that Pakistan was trying to push armed guerrillas into Jammu and Kashmir. Nevertheless, officials have admitted that the infiltration has remarkably decreased due to border fencing and other measures taken by the Indian Army.
Pakistani troops on July 10 allegedly opened indiscriminate firing on Indian posts in the Kishna Ghati area, along the LoC in Poonch district, as Indian troopers were engaged in preventing a 'major' infiltration bid. The army believes it was a group of eight intruders.
There have been many attempts at infiltration, some effectively foiled by the alert Indian troops, almost on a weekly basis, according to the officer. Infiltration started picking up in May after melting of snows in the Himalayan passes.
'By now, according to our estimatem, more than 70 militants have crossed over to this side from the south of Pir Panjal only,' the source said. Police sources also confirmed that they have received reports that 'new faces have been sighted' in the Budhal, Thanna Mandi, Surankote and Bafliaz areas of Rajouri and Poonch districts.
The army sources conceded that the barbed wire fence, which is 12 feet high and runs all along the LoC, has not stopped the infiltration. 'It is just a deterrent, not a fool-proof system against the infiltration.'
This barbed wire fence has its own problems. It gets damaged during snowfall every winter. The repair takes its own procedural delays and militants take advantage of this, said the officer. "They (militants) have also developed techniques of jumping (across) the fence, cutting the fence and also neutralizing it by using shock proof gloves", the army source said. |
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