labouring hard for over 10 days after detecting the presence of a tunnel along the line of Control in Pallanwala area of Akhnoor sector in Jammu, the Indian Army on Tuesday claimed the 150-metre long tunnel originated towards the Pakistani side of the loC and was designed to push in trained infiltrators ‘secretively’ through the channel.
The detection of a tunnel near the loC was first reported by The Pioneer in its August 23, 2014 edition. The Indian Army was caught on the wrong foot as the 150-metre long tunnel was dug deep inside the Indian territory before it was detected by the patrol party neak Chala post in Pallanwala area. Since the entire area was dotted with mine fields, the Indian Army was carrying out field investigation with the help of sophisticated gadgetry to detect the opening of the tunnel.
According to official sources, “The Army deployed ground penetrating radar and other equipment to map the exact coordinates of the tunnel”. Security experts in Jammu region view it as a serious security lapse especially in the wake of increasing hostilities between the neighboring countries. According to the written statement issued by the Ministry of Defence spokesman in Jammu, “The tunnel which was discovered on 22 August 2014 along the loC in Pallanwala area of Akhnoor was approximately 130 to 150 meters in length on own side of the line of Control and originated on the Pakistan side”.
During the investigation, the Army also discovered that the tunnel was approximately 20 feet below ground level and was four feet high.The air supply was also arranged inside the tunnel with the help of 2 inch plastic pipe. According to defence experts, the main objective behind constructing the long tunnel was to infiltrate terrorists across the line of Control in the Jammu division to carry out strikes probably during the Assembly elections due in November 2014.
The Defence spokesman also claimed that the area domination patrol of the Indian Army had first noticed a depression in the ground and after investigating the same 150-long tunnel was detected. Interestingly, Pakistani Army was keeping the Indian forces on their toes by resorting to ‘unprovoked’ firing in the same area and also launched a BAT operation and ambushed one Indian soldier Naik Mongchon B of 3 Naga on July 22, 2014 by breaching the line of Control at least 700 metres inside the Indian territory. A similar tunnel was earlier detected in the area in 2009 and another tunnel was detected by the villagers along the International border in Ramgarh sector of Samba in July 2012.