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| Pak mobile phone signals in certain Jammu villages a cause of concern for security agencies | | | Bharat Bhushan
JAMMU, Aug 21: Mobile phone signals of few telecom companies of Pakistan in certain Jammu villages have become a cause of major security concern for the counter-insurgency (CI) agencies here.
While crossing a particular stretch of road close to Kangar village in Bhalwal block, the signals of Indian mobile companies vanish all of a sudden and in their place, names of Pak telecom companies get displayed on the cellphone screens.
In the adjoining Upper Kot and Bhalwal villages too, the Pak telecom network is active, according to police sources.
"The cellphones in these villages often show the location of mobile phone towers across the international Border (IB) at Sayedra Khurd, Sialkote," the sources informed.
While these villages are approximately 10 to 12 km from the general bus stand here, the Kanhachak border is about 7 to 9 km from them. All these areas fall on the infiltration route of militants. Six to seven years back, five Pakistani militants were gunned down by security forces in an encounter at Tumber Khoo near Bhalwal. They had infiltrated somewhere from Kanhachak border and were moving towards Kangar for their onward journey to Katra and Reasi hills when two local hunters had picked up their movement and alerted army.
The major cause of worry for the Indian agencies now was that militants and Pak agents, if any happened to be there in the area, could make use of these signals to speak to their mentors across the IB and intensify their activities in the area, the sources added.
Sources said the CI agencies also "suspect some sort of activity in the area" but they were yet to take any step to keep these villages under close watch. They were at present mainly dependent on the inputs which they had been getting from the locals in this regard, the sources added.
Army too had carried out a survey in the area two days, or so before the Independence Day and spoken to the sarpanchs and other prominent persons.
Security forces had last year seized Pak SIM cards from an Indian cross-LoC visitor and a special police officer (SPO) at Chakan-da-Bagh in Poonch, and from the possession of some foreign militants killed by security forces in some border areas of the district.
This pointed to the use of Pak SIM cards by militant outfits in the areas where the Pak telecom network was available, sources said.
Sources said the intelligence agencies were taking all the requisite steps to block the Pak mobile phone network on this side of the border.
Their blocking was required to be done at the earliest as these "pose a serious threat to the security of the country," the sources added.
Sources said the Pak mobile phone network was available here because the Pak telecom providers -- Yuang, Telenor, U-Fone, PAK 05 and PAK 100 -- had erected mobile towers in their border areas which should at least be at a distance of five to six kilometres from the IB.
This was against the set norms as mobile service providers were not permitted to provide service within 'no service zone' of 500 metres width along the borders. It was also not allowed to set up mobile base trans-receiver stations in the buffer zone of 10 km width along the borders, the sources added.
Early this year, the mobile phone signals of Mobilink and some other companies providing cellphone services in Pakistan were also traced in some Indian border villages along the Line of Control (LoC) in Poonch.
The issue was also raised in the Lok Sabha last year. Replying to the queries of MPs, Union Minister of State for communications Milind Deora had stated that telecom operators in Pakistan had set up their mobile towers within 10 km distance from the borders.
He also informed that the mobile signals of the Pakistan service providers were available inside Indian territory in Barmer, Rajasthan, and in some border towns of Jammu and Kashmir. |
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