Pakistan Army and Inter Service Intelligence (ISI) have stepped up their activities on the line of Control (loC) in Poonch and Rajouri by using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) for reconnaissance. The development has alarmed the security establishment since it is for the first time that Pakistan has used such a sophisticated devise to survey strategic Indian territory.
In the last one week alone, at least two airspace violations by UAVs were detected in the region. The UAVs entered more than two kms inside Poonch and hovered around for some time to gather Intelligence about strategic targets like Army locations and crucial road links.
Security forces fear that Intelligence gathered by the UAVs will be used by the
Pakistan Army to hit locations in India using long-range mortar firing besides unearthing new ingress routes to push in militants from launch pads located in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK). These pads are situated close to the loC and high resolution pictures captured by the UAVs will enable the ISI handlers of various militant groups to plan and execute “daring” infiltrations in the coming days.
Disclosing this, officials said Poonch and Rajouri have seen more ceasefire violations than areas like Kupwara, Gurez and Tangdhar in North Kashmir, where militants try to infiltrate in the summer after the snow melts.
This summer has so far seen reduced infiltration attempts in North Kashmir due to aggressive and dynamic pattern of counter-infiltration deployment. Failing to breach the security wall there, Pakistan Army and ISI are now focusing on Poonch and Rajouri located south of Pir Panjal Ranges.
Elaborating upon this aspect, sources said many parts of the loC in these two areas are not fenced to stop the infiltrators due to tough terrain and rivers. Militants find it easier to sneak in through rivulets and nullahs now in spate due to monsoon and thick jungles. In order to enable the ultras to have a “smooth” entry into Indian territory, Pakistan Army gives them covering fire by targeting Indian Army posts.
In fact, out of 250 ceasefire violations this year more than 80 per cent have taken place in Poonch and Rajouri sectors, indicating that Pakistan Army is going all out to make this zone “hot,” sources said. They also did not rule out more air space violations by the UAVs and increase in ceasefire violations in the coming days.
Pointing out another crucial factor, they said, unlike North Kashmir where villages are located far from the loC, farmers till their land very close to the border in Poonch and Rajouri, and so they are easy targets for Pakistan Rangers.
In the last couple of weeks the manner in which the Pakistan Army targeted civilian areas in Poonch forced majority of residents to vacate their homes and hearths. Since they act “eyes and ears” of the Army, their absence in the forward area provides easy access to militants inside the Indian territory.
In the last three months about two dozen infiltration bids have been recorded along the 740-km-long loC and International Border in Jammu region.
Though Army authorities and the BSF officers maintained that not a single infiltration bid was successful and all of them were foiled by the robust anti-infiltration grid, but in some of the cases where these infiltrators have managed to sneak in, it has thrown open a new challenge to security forces.
According to field reports a handful of new ‘terror factories’ have reportedly come up across the loC and International Border. ISI is imparting arms and explosive training to fresh batches of militants before pushing them inside the Indian territory to spread its ‘arc of terror’.
Intelligence inputs indicated that five groups of militants were now poised to infiltrate into Poonch in the next few days. Two to three teams of ultras are also ready to get into Krishna Ghati sector in Rajouri. Each team or group has five to seven militants equipped with sophisticated weapons and communication sets, they said.