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| VDCs, locals join hands with troops to check infiltration | | | EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Apr 14: As it is not possible for the troops to be physically present on every inch of ground, village defence committee (VDC) members and locals, who almost every day visit their sprawling border fields and the nearby isolated water bodies, are being roped in to make infiltration impossible.
Active participation of VDCs and locals could also help in identifying the loopholes on the fenced borders neighbouring Pakistan, army sources said.
Though the borders were fenced and adequate troops were present on them, the March 23 incident of infiltration by 16 militants from a nullah at Jogwan, Akhnoor, and another reported incident of exfiltration by three Pak militants from J&K borders showed that something more needed to be done to make the borders opaque.
As a first step in this direction, a decision had already been to reorient troops in the state.
Sources said the troops were being removed from the national highway and some other places in the state to the Line of Control (LoC).
On the LoC, they would be assigned the duty of patrolling water bodies, including nullahs and rivulets, and laying night ambushes on the known infiltration routes.
The presence of more troops on the borders would definitely help in containing infiltration to a large extent, the sources added.
Sources said to further make infiltration impossible, the help of locals and VDC members was also being taken.
While VDC members would be entrusted the job of patrolling inner streets and abandoned places on borders, locals would be acting more as "eyes and ears" of security agencies. They would be required to immediately contact army or police if they spotted suspicious movement in their villages or the border fields where they worked every day.
Sources said with the reorientation of army, especially Rashtriya Rifles, BSF would assume the role of road opening party.
Apart from alerting VDC members and locals, additional troops were being deployed on borders amid intelligence inputs that Pakistan-based terror organisations would be making desperate attempts to enter the state from different points on the International Border (IB) and the Line of Control (LoC), the sources added.
The presence of the Rashtraiya Rifles as the second line of defence would help in close coordination among the various army units deployed along the LoC.
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