Over 200 militants waiting to infiltrate into Kashmir: Army

Says anti-infiltration grid in place to foil the plans of intruders

Majid Jahangir

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, April 20

As security agencies are grappling with protests and stone-throwing in the region, the Army has sounded an alarm saying that over 200 militants are waiting to cross the Line of Control.

A top Army officer said they had inputs that the militants across were waiting for an opportunity to infiltrate into Kashmir.

“Over 200 militants have gathered along the LoC. They are waiting and are ready to cross,” the senior officer said, adding that the “anti-infiltration grid is in place and will foil their plans.”

Earlier this month, the first major infiltration bid of the year was foiled with the killing of four militants, suspected to be foreigners, in the Keran sector of the frontier Kupwara district.

The militants, defence sources said, had tried several times to cross over despite the heavy snow, but their attempts were foiled. One such bid, they said, was foiled in the Uri sector in Baramulla in January when the militants were pushed back.

As the snow has started melting in the higher reaches, the militants would attempt to infiltrate in the coming weeks, the sources said.

There was a dramatic spurt in infiltration in 2016, when Kashmir witnessed the five-month- long unrest after the killing of militant commander Burhan Wani. Last year, 364 attempts were made by militants to infiltrate, and 112 militants were able to sneak into Kashmir. The number of infiltrators was the highest since 2012. In 2015, 33 militants had sneaked into the Valley.

There are around 250 militants active in Kashmir and a majority of them are locals. Most of the foreign militants are active in north Kashmir districts.

Communication centre gutted 

Srinagar: A building housing the Army communication centre in north Kashmir’s Baramulla town was gutted in a fire on Thursday morning. The fire broke around 6 am after which the Army fire tenders were pressed into service. Sources said fire tenders from the local station were also deployed in the area and it took nearly half an hour to douse the flames. — TNS