Jammu: Apprehending an increase in attempts of cross-border infiltration before winter, the Army today said it has received reports indicating the presence of 500 to 600 militants on the other side of the Line of Control (LoC).
"The infiltration attempts would increase before the on-set of winter in J&K. The concentration of armed militants along the Line of Control on that side has increased to 500 to 600 now," top Army sources told PTI.
Latest intercepts and border monitoring reports point towards large-scale attempts of infiltration by militants from several random places before winter period, they said.
The sources said that increasingly desperate attempts are being made on a daily basis to infiltrate into Jammu and Kashmir, but tight security and alertness of the forces along the border have been foiling the militants' designs.
"Pakistan security forces are clearly involved in supporting terrorist activities to create insecurity in J&K, especially in Jammu region," Col (General Staff) G Arora said.
There have been increasing ceasefire violations, firing and shelling incidents on Indian posts in order to facilitate infiltration of terrorists who find it more and more difficult to make entry through the LoC, he said.
"The leadership of various outfits such as Hizbul Mujahideen, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed, HUJI had done recces along the LoC to plan infiltration. Hizb supremo and United Jehad Council (UJC) Chief Syed Salludin also visited camps to morally boost his cadres along the Indo-Pak border some time back," the sources said.
However, security has been beefed up along the border with Pakistan which has been increasing the frustration of the militants and their commanders, they said.
The said that eight to nine ultras are in each group, who keep attempting to cross into this side on a daily basis.
"Once they fail on one place of infiltration due to high alertness of troops, they immediately move to another location to try and infiltrate into this side," they added.
They said that intelligence inputs keep coming regularly in this direction and necessary action is taken as per the situation.
General Officer Commanding (GOC), 16 Corps and Security Advisor, Lt Gen Rameshwar Roy told reporters here last week that there has been an increase in infiltration bids from across the border by terrorist groups during the past several months and most of them have been foiled by the troops.
"We will utilise all our resources, including gadgetary and man power, to thwart these intrusion bids into our territory from across the border," the GOC had said.