Bid to reactivate Balakot terror camps: Govt in RS

Strap: Cites intelligence, assures of guarding border

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Tribune News Service

New Delhi, November 27

Citing intelligence inputs, the government today claimed that attempts were being made to reactivate terror camps at Balakot in Pakistan, a territory bombed by Indian Air Force fighters.

Union Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy told the Rajya Sabha that the Central Government was committed to take all necessary steps to protect the borders of the country and maintain its integrity and sovereignty.

“Inputs indicate that attempts are being made by Pakistan-based terror outfits to reactivate their camp at Balakot and restart their religious and Jihadi indoctrination courses against India,” the Minister said while replying to a written question.

The fighters of the Indian Air Force had bombed and destroyed the terror camps at Balakot on February 26 after terrorists attacked a convoy of Central Reserve Police Force vehicles in Jammu and Kashmir on February 14, killing 40 jawans.

Reddy said the government had adopted a policy of zero tolerance towards terrorism and the security forces were taking effective and continuous action in countering. As a result, a large number of terrorists had been neutralised in Jammu and Kashmir during the past few years, he said.

The Minister said in Jammu and Kashmir till November 17 this year, 594 terror incidents had taken place in which 37 civilians and 79 security personnel were killed. He said a total of 614 terror incidents had taken place in Jammu and Kashmir in 2018 in which 39 civilians and 91 security personnel were killed.

Reddy said up to October 2019, there had been 171 infiltration attempts from across the border of which 114 were successful. In 2018, there were 328 infiltration attempts of which 143 were successful.