Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Dec 5: General Officer Commanding (GOC) of Nagrota based 16 Corps Lt Gen RR Nimbhorkar said today that Army has successfully foiled all infiltration attempts by the militants along the Line of Control (LoC) and was determined to maintain the trend as he reviewed situation in Sabjian sector of Poonch district with top Commanders of the Army, where troops had gunned down three Pakistani militants on Thursday when they were trying to infiltrate inside the Indian territory with big consignment of arms, ammunition and explosives.
After visiting the spot to boost morale of the Army soldiers for their swift action and clean operation in which troops didn’t suffer any casualties, Lt Gen Nimbhorkar told the Excelsior that the infiltration attempt was successfully foiled by the Army soldiers.
“Army has not allowed even a single infiltration attempt to succeed along the LoC in twin border districts of Poonch and Rajouri this year so far and our troops are committed to ensure that similar trend is followed in the days to come when the intrusion bids were expected to go up due to adverse weather conditions,” he said.
Asserting that about 30 to 40 hardcore Pakistani militants were waiting across the LoC, mainly opposite Poonch sector, for an opportunity to infiltrate into this side, the GOC Nagrota Corps said the troops have been concentrating mainly on Poonch sector as movement of the militants across Rajouri sector was very less.
“The militants were mainly focusing on Poonch sector for infiltration. All four infiltration attempts by the militants in the past few months have been foiled in Poonch sector. They (the militants) will continue to make the intrusions bids but our troops are determined to foil them,” Lt Gen Nimbhorkar said.
He pointed out that militants were desperate to infiltrate into this side as their cadre were running extreme short of strength and weapons and were making frantic calls for help to their mentors across the LoC.
“The militants present on this side were sitting quite. Rather, they have been made to sit quite by the security forces. The militants were unable to carry out any act due to alertness of security forces,” he said, adding that the militants could even attempt infiltration from the International Border (IB) in Jammu sector.
Saying that the militants would escalate infiltration attempts during winter when visibility is very low along the LoC, Lt Gen Nimbhorkar, however, maintained that it was the Army that would dominate the situation.
“Even during adverse weather conditions when visibility would be a major challenge, we will dominate the situation. We are not going to allow the militants to infiltrate in any case,” the top Army Commander declared.
He said the Army has already put its winter strategy in place with installation of sophisticated gadgetry and increasing foot patrolling along the LoC.
Earlier, during his visit to Sabjian sector in Poonch district on the LoC, where Army had successfully thwarted the infiltration attempt by killing three top militants, Lt Gen Nimbhorkar was briefed on the situation by the Army Commanders about the intrusion bid.
“There were three militants, who tried to infiltrate and all of them were killed,” he said, adding this was very rare occasion when three infiltrators were carrying 2000 plus rounds with them, which indicated that the militants were not only running short of manpower but also weaponry.
The GOC reviewed situation along the LoC with the Army Commanders and called for maintenance of strict surveillance to ensure that the infiltration attempts by the militants were effectively thwarted. He said this year, four clear infiltration attempts by the militants have been made in Poonch sector and all of them were foiled. In addition to them, there could be some other invisible attempts (in which the militants retreated to PoK before reaching close to LoC), which too were thwarted.
He called upon the Army troops to maintain high degree of alert during the winter when the militants would increase the infiltration attempts.
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