Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Dec 8: After a long gap, Pakistan Army this afternoon violated ceasefire along the Line of Control (LoC) at Sabra Gali in Mendhar sector of Poonch district in an apparent attempt to push militants into this side taking advantage of adverse weather conditions.
This was the first ceasefire violation of this month along the borders in Jammu sector—either on the Line of Control (LoC) or International Border (IB) especially after the winter setting in with security agencies indicating spurt in infiltration attempts in the winter during December and January when visibility would be reduced to zero.
Official sources told the Excelsior that Pakistan Army troops of 654 Balouch Regiment started firing on Indian positions at 4.35 pm today from Dabsi area of Pakistan targeting three forwards posts of the Indian Army, which immediately retaliated.
Sources said retaliation by the Indian troops was necessitated to ensure that the militants didn’t manage to take advantage of firing from across the LoC to sneak into this side as weather conditions were not favourable today. It had started getting dark by 4.30 pm in the upper reaches when Pakistan Army started firing on the LoC.
The firing lasted till 5.15 pm. It was confined to small arms, sources said, adding the retaliatory firing by the alert Indian troops ensured that there was no successful infiltration by the militants. Troops retaliated to neutralize the militants, sources said.
“There were no casualties or damage on the Indian side in Pakistan firing,’’ sources said.
They added that it was after a long gap—at least more than a fortnight—that any ceasefire violation was reported from Pakistan side on the LoC or even the IB. This was the first ceasefire violation of this month as well as after the winter sets-in few days back.
Sources confirmed that the militants did try to infiltrate under the cover of Pakistan firing and slight darkness but finding the troops very alert, they didn’t succeed.
Worthwhile to mention here that security agencies had specific inputs about the presence of a number of militants across the LoC and IB, who would try to infiltrate into the Indian territory during the winter months taking cover of adverse weather conditions. While upper reaches in twin border districts of Rajouri and Poonch on the LoC received snowfall, the plains in these two districts as well as on the IB in Jammu sector are inflicted with fog, which reduced visibility to zero during December and January.
However, Army and BSF manning the LoC and IB respectively have already declared that they had put in place their winter strategy to ensure that the militants didn’t take advantage of fog to infiltrate inside the Indian territory.
Every year during the foggy weather conditions, the infiltrations attempts go up on both LoC and IB. However, it has been observed that the militants hadn’t succeeded in exploiting the weather conditions to sneak into this side.
Army and BSF have deployed anti-fog equipments and other sophisticated devices along the borders to keep a strict surveillance on the infiltrators. The Night Vision Devices, surveillance cameras and other anti-fog equipments have already been installed all along the LoC and IB, sources said.
Apart from this, Army and BSF have also intensified night patrolling along the border especially along the routes, which the militants could take during infiltration, sources added.
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