950 incidents of ceasefire violations in 3 months

Pakistan breaking LoC peace to help militants infiltrate: IG BSF

SRINAGAR: Ceasefire was being violated by Pakistan along the Line of Control to provide cover to militants infiltrating into Jammu and Kashmir, Inspector General BSF Ajmal Singh said on Monday, even as the date collected the government said that there have been 950 incidents of ceasefire violations along the LoC from August to October.
"Whenever there is infiltration, there is firing from the Pakistani side. The purpose of ceasefire violation is to facilitate infiltration but our forces are alert to ensure that there is no infiltration," Singh said speaking to reporters at the sidelines of a function here.
Singh said there was no connection between the abrogation of provisions of Article 370 that provided special status to Jammu and Kashmir and the increase in ceasefire violations following the Centre's move on August 5.
"The situation along the border is fine and the ceasefire violations by Pakistan have no connection with the abrogation. This has been going on for many years now," he said.
Singh said infiltration had reduced by a large extent but the launch pads across the Line of Control were active as militants were waiting to sneak in.
"We do not have the exact figures of how many militants are there at the launching pads (on other side of Line of Control) but militants are there at these launching pads. They keep on making attempts to sneak in," he added.
On the troops' movement in Jammu and Kashmir, Singh said "induction and de-induction of forces is a normal process, this has been happening at the time of elections etc".
"The situation (in Kashmir) is normal, there is peace. There is no encounter or bloodshed, this is evident to all," he added.
Asked about militants reverting to use of satellite phones for communicating with their handlers in recent months to avoid interception, Singh said it did not matter as the forces are capable of dealing with them and ready to do it.
"Use of satellite phones by militants is nothing new. We also have satellite phones and we also use them. We have the systems to intercept whichever system (of communication) they might use. India has more technology than Pakistan," he said.
Meanwhile, Minister of State (MoS) for Defence, Shripad Naik informed Rajya sabha that there have been 950 incidents of ceasefire violations along the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir region from August to October.
"There have been 950 incidents of Ceasefire Violations along Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir region during the last three months (August to October, 2019)," Naik said in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha.
The Union Minister said that the appropriate retaliation was carried out by the Indian Army. In the reply, he also said that the violations of ceasefire and infiltration were taken up with Pakistan authorities at the appropriate level through the established mechanism of hotlines, flag meetings, Directorate General of Military Operations talks as well as diplomatic channels between the two countries.
This comes after the central government abrogated the Article 370 of the Constitution of India that conferred special status to the state of Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcated it into two union territories of Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistan has openly objected to the move and tried to raise the issue on several international platforms.