Besides battling floods, the BSF and the Army are also racing against time to repair the damaged anti-infiltration fence along the International Border (IB) and loC to prevent militants from sneaking into Jammu & Kashmir.
With more than 50 km of fence damaged or swept away due to floods and landslides, lashkar-e-Tayyeba (leT) terrorists tried to infiltrate into Kupwara earlier this week even as 300 odd militants are waiting across the border to sneak in before winter sets in and snow blocks ingress routes.
Security forces have now pressed in more engineers and workforce and are working overtime to mend the fence while troops have started returning to their forward posts which they were forced to abandon when water had entered 10 days ago. The BSF guards the IB and the Army the loC respectively.
Four leT militants were killed in two different encounters while trying to infiltrate earlier this week. The possibility of some militants having managed to get in during the ongoing firefighting has not been ruled out, officials said on Saturday.
Operational commanders are a worried lot as nearly 300 well-trained militants are waiting to infiltrate into Jammu division and north Kashmir in the coming weeks. “They are also racing against time,” the officials said.
With winters round the corner, the militants are desperate to sneak in before snow blocks all ingress routes. “They will definitely exploit the absence of the anti-infiltration fence,” sources said, adding most of the terrorists are lodged in 20 launch pads close to loC in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK).
Since the fence was erected along the 750-km long loC seven years back, infiltration came down by 75 per cent. Security forces now cannot allow the Pakistan-backed terrorists to take advantage of the present situation.
Keeping this in view, the Army has deployed additional engineers and work force to repair the fence in Akhnoor, Poonch and Rajouri which are south of Pir Panjal mountain ranges and Kupwara and some other vulnerable places in Kashmir.
Giving details of the extent of damage, sources said more than 10 km fence along the IB in Samba near Jammu was swept away while six to seven km along the loC in Akhnoor. About 20 km fence was also destroyed in parts in Poonch and Rajouri. Identical destruction have been reported from Kupwara and other sectors like Keran too.
Incidentally, militants have always tried to come in through Kupwara and Keran sectors due to tough mountainous terrain covered with thick jungles and officials admitted that the security forces cannot afford to let their guard down there. In this backdrop, more troops are also deployed to strengthen the counter-infiltration grid and provide help to the already posted troops till the fence is repaired.
Similarly, the BSF has stepped up patrolling on the IB in Samba to ensure complete area domination in order to prevent any infiltration bids from across the border.
In some of the worst affected areas in Pargwal in Akhnoor and Samba even half a dozen posts of the Indian army and some check points of BSF were flooded and the jawans had to be airlifted.
According to lt. General K H Singh, Chief of Nagrotra based 16 Corps, at least four to five km of fence was affected in the Akhnoor sector and some of the posts were vacated by the jawans after the water levels rose abruptly.
With the flood waters in the river Chenab and local streams reducing, the jawans have re-occupied their posts and are stationed on ground zero. Some Pakistan Army posts were also damaged in the areas opposite Akhnoor sector, the senior army officer said.
Army Chief General Dalbir Singh Suhag had also visited forward areas in Akhnoor to take stock of the situation and operational preparedness to handle any attempts by Pakistan Army to push in militants by giving cover fire.