No question of lowering guard, next three months more crucial, say Army officials
Srinagar: The measures taken by the army to bring better technology and smart components to plug the porous terrain along the Line of Control (LoC) in Kashmir for better results in stopping infiltration has bore the fruit with zero infiltration recorded this year so far at a time when snow has melted on all passes.
Top Army officials confirmed to KNO that this year zero infiltration has been witnessed along the LoC and the development was first of its kind in a decade. A senior army official revealed that the Army was dealing with a “very difficult” terrain along the LoC, where the visibility is sometimes low and due to this, militants would manage to infiltrate.
“But concrete measures were taken to plug the gaps along the LoC. Better technology was being brought into the counter-infiltration grid. Smart components were being brought in and we have achieved better success rate in counter infiltration,” the army officer told KNO, wishing not to be named, adding that despite the melting of snow due to rise in temperatures, traditional infiltration passes were open. “But so far, we have not witnessed any single attempt from the across,” he said.
This he said, was for the first time in the past nearly a decade that there was no infiltration on the LoC stretch in Kashmir this year so far. He said that the security forces were working on two lines of operation in Kashmir to end militancy. “We want the local militants to return to the mainstream.”
The army officer said that recently the security forces received the two local boys who had picked up gun. “We are ready to receive them in an honourable manner,” he said.
He said the infiltration level has come to zero this year so far at a time when militants in Kashmir are facing serious leadership crisis. “We killed 125 militants this year so far and the number of militants killed in past three years is almost 725.
The slain include almost 50 top commanders of Lashkar-e-Toiba, Hizbul Mujahideen, Jaish-e-Muhammad and Ansaar Gazwatul Hind. This year’s big catch was AGH chief Zakir Moosa,” the officer said.
He said despite the fact that there was zero infiltration this year so far, but “We won’t lower the guard as anything is possible till November end, when the infiltration season ends.” “Latest technology is being employed by the security forces along the LoC and that has helped a lot,” the official told KNO. (KNO)