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| Life on LoC: From dusk to dawn, no one is seen in villages except troops | | | BHARAT BHUSHAN
EARLY TIMES REPORT
MENDHAR, POONCH (near LoC), Oct 19: Despite the border truce, troops here are on high alert day in, day out, no matter what the weather is like, ready to take on infiltrators. The night in this part of the country is different.
From dusk to dawn, no one is seen in the villages close to the Line of Control (LoC) except for jawans at ambush points carved out in thick bushes and on possible infiltration routes. Alertness is in the air here. Even locals prefer to stay away from the ambush areas during night hours as they fear they may be mistaken for militants and killed.
"The days, before the mountain passes are covered with snow, are very crucial here. We cannot to afford to lower guard," a senior army officer, who did not want to be quoted, said.
He was apprehensive of a possible jump in infiltration bids ahead of the peak winter months. The officer said militants and their mentors in Pakistan were driven to desperation due to the failed intrusion bids and killing of over 40 infiltrating militants in the past few months. To keep the pot boiling in J&K in winters, militants could do anything to sneak into India regardless of the danger to their lives, he added.
Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) chief Syed Salahudin was too said to have visited militant training camps in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) early this month to revive the sagging spirits of the trainee and trained militants.
The morale of the Pak-based militants had gone very low in view of the multi-tier security on borders, the officer added. However, to prevent militants from infiltrating into India, a 'winter management programme' had already been chalked out, he informed.
"Crucially, Pakistan's Islamist terrorist reserves are intact, and the only noticeable shift is in its strategy and tactics. It has closed front doors on terrorists, but is continuing all its activities from the back door," he added.
The officer said in fact, no terrorist group, including those focusing on Kashmir, had been effectively neutralized in Pakistan. He said belligerent posture on Kashmir remained integral to the Pakistan's internal politics, both for 'democratic' parties and the army.
The officer said people in the border district, who earlier supported terrorists in one way, or the other, now understood the Pak game of "spoiling their youth in the name of jehad".
They, now, no more wanted their children to join militant ranks.
This was evident from the increase in flow of information about militants and their hideouts. People were now coming forward to help army and police smash terrorist infrastructure in their respective areas, he added.
He said people now preferred development to militancy which had brought them death and destruction since 1990. They also preferred education for their children to militant training, he added. The officer said they were sure that a day would come soon when people would chase away foreign militants across the borders. Nizamudin, a resident of Mendhar, said they supported the army idea of development and were against militancy.
Though there were few people here, who supported the separatist ideology, appropriate laws were there to deal with them, he added, saying some government schemes were also there to bring them back to the national mainstream.
Munir Hussain of Mandi floated the idea of making a force of locals to fight foreign militants. He said they were ready to take on militants on their own. People hoped that peace would return to the state soon and there would be no dusk to dawn restriction on their movement in the border areas of the district. |
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