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| Infiltration up: Army chief | | |
AGENCIES
New Delhi, Sep 4: Indian Army chief General Deepak Kapoor Friday said that cross border infiltration into Jammu and Kashmir has been registering an upward trend with attempts being made to “push in” from Pakistan as many terrorists as possible before the winter.
As another fierce battle raged on between security forces and a group of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militants in the state’s Reasi district, he said that the attempts are being made to disrupt peace in the Kashmir Valley.” Let me put it this way that this period is critical as we have a peaceful valley… Attempts will be made from across the border to try and disrupt that and push in as many infiltrators as possible before the winter sets in,” Kapoor told reporters here.
The first casualty during a ceasefire violation at the Line of Control (LoC) this year was recorded on Sep 1, when a soldier was killed in Poonch district as Pakistani troops fired from across the border. Kapoor termed the unprovoked firing a “diversionary tactic” to sneak in infiltrators. The LoC divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan.
“They try that. During firing, they can send as many (infiltrators) they want. But we understand this tactic and have been taking action against it,” he said.
India and Pakistan agreed to a ceasefire on the LoC November 2003. However, Defence Minister A.K. Antony had recently disclosed in parliament that 110 incidents of ceasefire violation had taken place along the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir since 2006.
Kapoor refused to comment whether the ceasefire violations have the support of Pakistan’s leadership.
“That (the support) only the Pakistani leadership can tell. But as far as we are concerned, whenever a ceasefire violation will take place, we will take retaliatory action. We try to exercise maximum restraint but if ceasefire violations continue to happen, we will have to retaliate at some stage,” he said.
The army chief said they had put up a “multi-tier” defence system to check infiltration at the LoC itself.
“The army is deployed in a multi-tier fashion so that infiltration can be checked at the border itself,” said Kapoor.There has been a surge in the incidents of cross-border infiltration. Army soldiers foiled an infiltration bid in Gurez sector Wednesday, killing five guerrillas attempting to cross over from Pakistan.
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