Ahead of Pak’s infiltration plan, India mounts forces at 2 LoC trouble spots

200-250 JeM, LeT militants trying to sneak into India in Sept end

JAMMU: To counter Pakistan’s repeated attempts to infiltrate terrorists into the Indian Territory and also to give a befitting reply to increased number of ceasefire violations, the Indian Army has intensified its presence along the Line of Control (LoC) in at least two trouble spots along the fence to contain the infiltration attempts by the enemy nation towards the end of this month.
The additional deployment of the forces has been made to counter Pakistan’s major mobilization of its men on the other side of the fence. On September 5, Pakistan had moved a brigade-sized force—around 2,000 persons including terrorists and Army regulars at the Bagh and Kotli sectors, a location 30km away from the LoC within its own territory as was reported by the Army quoting intel sources.
“We have reports that Pakistan will launch these terrorists—belonging to Jaish-e-Muhammed (JeM) and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) groups in the last week of September or early October. It is to counter it that we have intensified our presence along the LoC on two sectors, opposite to Pakistan’s Bagh and Kotli sectors,” an Army officer said.
The Indian Army is ready to foil any evil designs of Pakistan, he said.
Pakistan has been playing a double-pronged game in trying to rake up international support against India over the Kashmir valley while at the same time scaling up ceasefire violations to aid infiltrators in crossing over the LoC to enter Indian Territory.
“Even though violence in the hinterland has been contained, there is military escalation on the LoC because of the surge in ceasefire violations by Pakistan and its attempts to push in terrorists,” another top officer informed.
As per the data available till August 30, there were 222 ceasefire violations since the special status of Jammu and Kashmir was withdrawn on August 5.
Prior to this, the highest number of ceasefire violations (296) was recorded in the month of July.
Security sources have assessed that at least 40 to 50 trained militants have crossed over into India over last one month or so.
It is also estimated that around 200 to 250 trained militants are waiting to enter India particularly because outfits like JeM and LeT have activated terror launch pads along the LoC.
“The ceasefire violations by Pakistan are mostly intended to give cover fire to the terrorists infiltrating into India,” the officer said.
The mounting of Indian forces on the fence has also resulted into Pakistan postponing a proposed march towards the Line of Control (LoC). While Pakistan maintains that the delay in march has decided by a committee comprising heads of political and religious parties of Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK) until Prime Minister Imran Khan’s address at the UN General Assembly on September 27, defence sources reveal the real reason as the fear of additional deployment of Indian Army on the other side of the fence. Ever since Parliament ended special status of Jammu and Kashmir on August 6, Pakistan has adopted an aggressive posture along with direct and indirect threats of war, even as its nefarious designs have been foiled time and again by India.
“Every ceasefire violation by Pakistan has been retailed befittingly and most of its infiltration attempts have been foiled too,” a defence official said.
Only on Friday, the Pakistan Army had retrieved the bodies of two of its Punjabi soldiers killed by the Indian Army at the LoC after raising the white flag, following two days of unsuccessful attempts using force.