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| Border residents to work as ‘eyes and ears’ of troops | | | EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Apr 7: As infiltration shows no signs of receding, hectic efforts were on to rope in locals as "eyes and ears" of border guards to check infiltration.
Reorientation of troops was also on the cards, though home secretary GK Pillai Tuesday said Centre would watch the J&K situation before further troop reduction.
The brake on the withdrawal of troops comes in the wake of fresh violence in the state and increase in infiltration bids from across the borders.
Sixteen infiltrators, who had sneaked into India from Jogwan in Pallanwala near here, were gunned down by troops in four gunbattles in Kalakote, Rajouri, last week.
Highly placed sources in the state home department said the process of gradual withdrawal of troops, set in motion following improvement in situation in 2009, was put on hold due to the sudden spurt in militant violence in the state. "We cannot afford to withdraw troops at the cost of national security," the sources added, saying adequate presence of troops was required on borders and in the hinterland to take on battle-hardened militants.
Sources said any decision to withdraw troops depended on further improvement in situation. Troops had been alerted all along the borders with Pakistan to foil any infiltration bid by militants, the sources added. Sources said under the proposed central move to reorient security forces in the state, troops of Rashtriya Rifles (RR) were being shifted to the Line of Control (LoC) following intelligence inputs that Pak-based militants would make more intrusion bids in the coming months.
The RR presence as the second line of defence would help in close coordination among the various units of army deployed along the LoC. The heavy presence of troops on the LoC would also help in picking up movement of infiltrators followed by their killings, the sources added.
Moreover, there were inputs indicating that many more militants were waiting across the Line of control (LoC) at different launching pads for infiltration into Jammu and Kashmir.
Sources said sleuths of different intelligence agencies were also fanned out in the border areas to collect advance information about the movement of militants or suspicious persons. Several border residents had also been roped in to work as eyes and ears of border guards, the sources added.
Sources said since locals worked in their border fields and happened to visit even the abandoned places to collect fodder for cattle or for other menial works, they could tell troops about any suspicious movement in advance.
The Pallanwala infiltration was also detected by villagers who were going to fields to cut grass for cattle in the wee hours, the sources added.
Sources said the villagers, who provided valuable information, would be rewarded suitably.
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