The Army has categorically stated that there has been no major infiltration bid from across the Line of Control so far this year and media reports suggesting that as many as 40 heavily armed militants sneaked into Jammu and Kashmir from PoK recently are “concocted and baseless”.
However, about 700 militants trained at 42 camps in Pakistan were waiting to infiltrate.
“But our troops are alert and will foil such attempts if made,” said general-officer-commanding of Srinagar-based 15 (Chinar) Corps, Lt. Gen. Syed Atta Hasnain.
He told a local newspaper that there had been no incident of infiltration from across the de facto border in the past few days contrary to a news agency report which while quoting intelligence sources had said that 40 heavily armed militants had sneaked in recently. “There was no incident of infiltration and neither there was any gunfight on the Line of Control. These reports are concocted and baseless,” Lt. Gen. Hasnain said.
He added that this kind of “baseless stuff” appears in media in May and June every year on the presumption that with snows starting to melt during this period the militants seize the pause to infiltrate.”
Lt. Gen. Hasnain said no tension existed between the facing armies either following the killing of Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden by the US forces in Abbottabad early May.
However, about 700 militants, trained in 42 camps on the other side of the LoC are waiting in launching pads to infiltrate into Jammu and Kashmir as the Army has come to know through intelligence inputs.
“But our alert troops will foil any attempt to sneak in,” he said. Speaking on the security situation prevailing in the hinterland, the Army commander said: “It is returning to normal in the Valley. Only in Sopore (a town 48-km northwest of Srinagar) the situation was bad earlier but it too has improved now,” he said.
The Army, meanwhile, reiterated that for the first time since the outbreak of militancy in Jammu and Kashmir, no infiltration bid was reported from any part of the state between March and May this year. In the past, the incidence of infiltration and ex-filtration along the de facto border would increase in early spring, beginning in mid-March. Such attempts would be made mainly in Macheal, Keran and Gurez sectors of Kupwara and Bandipore districts as early as in March.
Last year alone, 35 militants and their guides were killed in clashes with the Indian troops along the LoC in March-May, the Army said.