Fayaz Bukhari
SRINAGAR, July 8: Army has intensified its vigil along the Line of Control (LoC) in Kashmir valley after they received inputs that militants who are waiting on launch pads in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) near the LoC are conducting recce before making infiltration bids.
Army sources said that around 400 militants are waiting on launch pads along the 740 kilometer LoC between India and Pakistan in Jammu and Kashmir. These militants have been waiting there since May for infiltrating into Kashmir but so far this year they have not made any such attempt along the LoC in Kashmir valley.
Sources said that militants who are waiting on the LoC are under pressure to infiltrate into Kashmir and so far they have failed in their attempts due to tight vigil by the Army along the LoC.
The LoC fence that was damaged due to heavy snowfall was repaired ahead of schedule so as to leave no room for the infiltrators to sneak in. Sources said that vigil along the LoC has been intensified and troops are conducting regular patrols along the fence and searches.
They said that after successful operations by police and Army in Kashmir valley this year in which 42 militants including 12 top commanders of Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) and Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) were killed 23 of them were arrested since January this year, the militants commanders in PoK are desperate to fill the void created in the Valley.
As per the figures of the Jammu and Kashmir Police, there are 130 active militants while Army figures put this number at 200 in Kashmir valley. Sources say that around two dozen local youth joined militancy this year but commanders in Pakistan want highly trained leaders to infiltrate so that they can lead the militants and recruit the locals.
They said that these militant commanders want to push in as many militants as they can ahead of Assembly elections scheduled for October-November. Last year militants suffered heavy casualities in infiltration attempts.
According to official figures in 2012 and 2013, there have been 541 infiltration attempts in Jammu and Kashmir and majority of them were foiled by troops.
In the meantime, troops along the LoC recovered 8 solar rockets in Sonapendigali of Macchil sector in the frontier district of Kupwara near the LoC yesterday. These rockets, however, were not fresh and may have been stored by the militants a year ago. The rockets were recovered during the searches of the forest area and were later defused. All these rockets were Pakistani made.
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