Defence Minister A K Antony on Monday reviewed the situation on the line of Control(lOC) with the three Services chiefs, National Security Advisor(NSA) and Defence Secretary. The meeting came in the backdrop of spurt in ceasefire violations on the lOC and a JCO getting killed on Monday in Uri.
The one-hour meeting saw the defence top brass taking stock of the operational preparedness of the armed forces to deal with aggressive posture of Pakistan Army on the lOC and continuing firing on the Indian posts, officials said later.
Incidentally, the last few weeks saw a decline in firing from across the lOC and the last ceasefire violation took place on October 23 in Mendhar sector of Poonch.
The latest incident in Uri, North Kashmir was a cause of concern, they said adding the top-level review also analysed the reasons for it. This year has seen more than 235 ceasefire violations in Jammu and Kashmir including 180 on the lOC and 50 on the International Border as compared to 117 in the last year.
Antony was briefed about the measures taken to check infiltration bids under the covering fire given by the Pakistan Army, and the next few weeks will see more determined bids by militants before snow blocks all ingress routes.
They said 35-40 ceasefire violations took place mostly in Bimbar Gali and Krishna Ghati areas of Poonch and Rajouri sectors in south Kashmir. Moreover, the focus of infiltration by militants was in Machhal, Keran and Nowgam sectors in North Kashmir besides Poonch.
Intelligence inputs suggested that the militants were likely to attack security forces and other important targets in Handwara, Budgam and Pulwama in Kashmir valley and Jammu, Poonch and Rajouri. The review took this also into account as the Pakistan backed militants were now trying to spread the arc of terrorism all across the State. Also, Pakistan were increasing the number of terrorist training camps in areas in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir(POK) facing Nowgam and Gurez, officials said.
As regards efforts to spread the arc of terrorism in Jammu region comprising Rajouri and Poonch which has seen relatively few terrorist incidents as compared to North Kashmir, the security forces briefed Antony about steps taken to strengthen counter-infiltration and counter-terrorism grid in Rajouri and Poonch.
The Director General of Military Operations of India and Pakistan have talked to each other on the hot line more than twice in the last week to bring down tension on the lOC.