Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Nov 12: In a significant decision that will help large number of border dwellers, Army has demined 296.04 kanals of land along Line of Control (LoC) in Akhnoor border belt and farmers will get its possession tomorrow.
Official sources said Army has demined 296.04 kanals of land located along the LoC at Dhar Crossing ahead of Jourian in Khour area of Akhnoor sector and conducted several tests on the land before deciding hand it over back to the civilians.
“The land falling along the LoC was mined during ‘Operation Vijay’ (the Indo-Pak war in Kargil in 1999) and the villagers since could neither live there nor cultivate their crops. They couldn’t even visit their land for the past 16 years for the fear of mine blasts,’’ sources said.
However, Army took the initiative and deployed large number of its personnel, trained in demining the land. The Army soldiers cleared entire area of 296.04 kanals of land from the mines and conducted several tests before declaring the area free of mines and fit for movement of the civilians.
The Army Engineers also inspected the site and declared it fit for civilian movement after which the troops decided to handover the land back to the border villages,
A ceremony for handing over of demined land to villagers of Akhnoor block will be conducted at Dhar Crossing ahead of Jourian in Khour area of Akhnoor sector tomorrow, sources said.
General Officer Commanding (GOC), Headquarters 10 Infantry Division Major General Kulpreet Singh and Deputy Commissioner Jammu, Simrandeep Singh will attend the function of returning the land to the civilians.
Sources said demining of this land was long pending demand of the civilians as they had been deprived of their right to cultivate it for over 16 years. Authorities at the helm of affairs including the Government and its representatives had taken up the issue with the Army repeatedly to de-mine the land.
“The Army had agreed to demine the land but it took lot of efforts to the troops to clear entire land of 296.04 kanals from the mines as even a single left out mine could have become fatal for the civilians,’’ sources said, adding the troops decided to handover land to the civilians only after its senior officers including the engineers gave go ahead after finding it fully fit for any kind of movement of the civilians.
Sometime back, Army had cleared part of Kaleeth firing range in Akhnoor sector of the landmines and restored it to the Government.
Sources said the troops were planning to demine more land in the border areas and restore them to the people in near future. These efforts of the Army were aimed at ‘civilian friendly relations’, they added.
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