A senior Army officer of Udhampur-based Northern command headquarters has alerted the Counter Infiltration (CI) grid across Jammu & Kashmir to maintain high alert along the 740-km-long line of Control (loC) in order to prevent infiltration of large number of heavily-armed and trained militants inside Indian territory.
“Around 600-700 militants are camping across different training camps in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (POK) and out of these half of them are waiting for an opportune time to infiltrate inside the Indian territory,” lt Gen RR Nimbhorkar, GOC of Nagrota-based 16 corps headquarters told reporters on the sidelines of a function in Akhnoor on Thursday.
Referring to the interrogation of a Pakistani terrorist arrested recently in Udhampur zone, the senior Army officer said, he (Pakistani terrorist) had revealed that there were around 35-37 active camps in that region. “So to my mind in the entire POK there may be about 600-700 terrorists camping in these camps.” He said that out of the 700 militants present in the POK, half of them are ready and waiting for a chance to infiltrate into the Indian side.
Commenting on the prevailing security situation especially in the wake of fresh threat from ISIS cadre lt-Gen Nimbhorkar said Indian Army is fully geared up to counter the threat posed by either ISIS or leT cadre in the State of Jammu & Kashmir.
“ISIS is a world wide problem and people are aware of this issue. As far as our area of operation is concerned whether it is ISIS or leT, they are all inimical to us. We have to be on guard against them and prevent infiltration inside the Indian borders and we are geared up for the same. We are ready to counter any action on their part”.
lt-Gen Nimbhorkar was commenting on the nature of threat posed by ISIS cadre in the State of Jammu & Kashmir following certain media reports that ISIS cadre is awaiting across the line of Control to infiltrate inside the Indian territory.
In response to another question whether ISIS cadre can join hands with the existing leT modules in the State to launch fresh strikes, the seasoned Army officer said there was a “possibility” that ISIS may join hands with Pakistan-based lashkar-e-Tayyeba to launch attacks in India.
“Yes, that (IS joining hands with leT to launch attacks in India) can be a possibility as the motive of the terrorists is to spread their propaganda”.
“They want their name and for that, they can do anything. And if they get successful, they can take advantage of it by using any name. Yes it is a possibility,”he added.
Commenting on the radicalisation of youth and the growing influence of ISIS in the virtual world lt Gen Nimbhorkar said,” there is no doubt they are using the internet to their advantage and trying to influence the youth. Now it is up to the powers at the helm to to take necessary action and how to deal with it legally and firmly.
Commenting on the training exercises of the Army jawans, the senior Army officer said in the absence of firing ranges we are facing problems on ground zero. Reacting to a straight question on the fate of firing ranges which are yet to be notified by the State Government lt Gen Nimbhorkar said, “need of a firing range is there and we are facing this problem”. Expressing hope that the issue would be resolved soon he added, “we have addressed this issue with the State Government and so far they are quite helpful in their attitude towards us. I think this issue should be resolved soon so that we can start our training exercises”. He said, “we cannot do training unless we have got a area available to us”.
On the issue of induction of modern equipment to further strengthen the counter infiltration grid along the loC lt-Gen Nimbhorkar said, “it is ongoing process and whenever we find a need to introduce or replace new equipment we do it in a phased manner”. In response to a specific query on the induction of remote controlled machine guns the Army officer said, “as of now we are practising on the ground zero. When they are fully functional we will deploy them. These trials are going on and are at a nascent stage, we are trying them out, if they are successful we will deploy them”.