Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, May 24: Amidst stepped-up infiltration attempts from across the Line of Control (LoC) in twin border districts of Poonch and Rajouri, Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) has revived its Border Action Team (BAT) with a view to carry out terror attacks and help militants infiltrate into this side.
Highly placed Intelligence sources confirmed to the Excelsior that LeT’s BAT have been spotted across the LoC during the past fortnight and were even involved in facilitating couple of infiltration attempts in Krishna Ghati sector of Poonch district. The BAT comprised highly trained commando militants of the LeT, which were capable of undertaking daring actions on the LoC
Sources said it was after movement of BAT commandos along the LoC that a spurt has been witnessed in the infiltration attempts along the LoC and ceasefire violations by the Pakistan Army. The BAT commandos, who were part of the LeT outfit, are deployed occasionally on the LoC especially when the militants had to carry out some action desperately or infiltrate at any cost.
Last year, the BAT along with Pakistan Army was instrumental in two major actions at Mankote and Sarla battalion area in Poonch in January and August last year in which seven Army jawans were killed. Though Pakistan Army carried out the deadly actions, they were reportedly facilitated by the BAT, which had conducted recee of the area.
According to sources, the Army has been maintaining high alert along the LoC and have so far foiled more than a dozen infiltration attempts this year along the LoC in twin border districts of Rajouri and Poonch and lone attempt made on Jogwan area of Khour in Pallanwalla sector this week in which an Army jawan was killed and three others were injured. Army had pushed back the infiltrators successfully.
They said the BAT members of the LeT mostly comprised Pakistanis and had been trained at Retla, Battal, Tata Paani and Sensa training camps in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK). The BAT members are battled hardened ultras, who had undergone rigorous training in sniper attacks especially along the LoC. The LeT leadership used them occasionally.
Sources opined that the major reason behind revival of BAT by the LeT was that normal cadre of the LeT have completely failed in their infiltration attempts on the LoC
Sources said Pakistan Army and Lashkar outfit were desperate to push trained militants into Jammu and Kashmir well ahead of the Assembly elections as they miserably failed to cause any impact on the Parliament polls, which, barring few incidents in Kashmir, were held peacefully, which has not gone well with the militant leadership as well as Pakistan Army and ISI.
It may be mentioned here that the months of April and May have witnessed spurt in infiltration attempts on the LoC in twin border districts of Rajouri and Poonch apart from rare intrusion bid made in Pallanwalla sector. The infiltration attempts by the militants are quite rare in Pallanwalla sector. However, few days back, a group of three to four militants had tried to infiltrate from Jogwan forward area but retreated after retaliation by the troops.
Sources didn’t rule out the possibility of more infiltration attempts along the LoC in the coming days but said the troops were are on very high alert and determined to thwart intrusion bids as well as BAT actions at any cost. They pointed out that Army has not allowed even a successful infiltration attempt in Rajouri and Poonch district this year so far.
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