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| Are Taliban about to knock J&K Doors? | | |
HAMMAD SALIF
Jammu, Apr 4: If State Director General of Police Kuldeep Khoda’s assessment and inputs is anything to go by the Taliban may soon be knocking the doors of Jammu and Kashmir.
At a time when state is celebrating the marked decline in incidents of violence and claiming credits for its strong security apparatus, the top cop’s authoritative statement on closing in of Taliban is quite disturbing news. Indian security establishment had already been wary of Taliban’s spill over to India from frontier provinces of Pakistan where they have almost taken over the reins, particularly in Swat Valley.
J&K’s Police Chief Khoda today told a television news channel at Taliban are getting close to the Indian borders. Khoda’s statement comes close to the heels of Army top brass’ recent assessment that some 300 militants are waiting on other side of the Line of Control to cross over to Jammu and Kashmir. Just a fortnight ago, Army chief Deepak Kapoor had pointed out that LeT was still active in Pakistan, despite Islamabad's claims of a crack-down against it.
Amidst reports that 300 trained terrorists were waiting to sneak into Jammu and Kashmir to disrupt coming Lok Sabha polls, the government has ordered stepping up of security in the border state to thwart any attempts to cause violence ahead of the elections.
After a visit by Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta and Defence Secretary Vijay Singh to meet top state officials this week, the order for heightened vigil was issued, Army sources said here today.
There are intelligence inputs that 400 trained terrorists of Lashkar-e-Toiba are waiting to infiltrate into Jammu and Kashmir to disrupt the polls. We have stepped up our alertness to prevent both infiltration and attacks, the sources said.
Security was also increased for political leaders campaigning in the border state in view of the threat, said the sources.
India, they said, estimated that there were 40 to 50 terror camps still functioning inside Pakistan-held territory.
The sophisticated training the terrorists receive came to light during the recent Hafrauda forest encounter in Kupwara-- the first infiltration attempt this year -- that was sustained by them for nearly a week.
Considering the possibility of the terrorists infiltrating into Jammu and Kashmir with the onset of summer and the snow melting in the mountainous terrain of the border state, the security forces have put in place a three-tier security apparatus, the sources said.
The Army expects infiltration attempts to go up as the terror groups would increase efforts to disrupt the elections.
"During the last year's Assembly polls, the terror groups failed to make an impact on the poll and militancy was kept under control during the security forces' vigil. After that failure, the terrorists are now desperate," the sources added.
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