The security establishment is in a heightened state of alertness after flash floods triggered by heavy rain damaged the fence along the International Border in Jammu region and amid warning by the Intelligence agencies that terrorist groups are desperate to target the ongoing Amarnath yatra.
As per rough estimates, the 190-km International Border fence has suffered damage in small patches of 50-100 metres at various places in Samba and Kathua districts. Intelligence agencies have alerted that Pakistan-backed terrorists will try to take advantage of the breach in the fence and sneak in through the gaps. The Border Security Force (BSF) has thus relocated some of its border outposts to ensure round-the-clock vigil in order to prevent any infiltration bid.
Admitting that the situation is a cause of concern, officials said on Sunday these two districts are sensitive as militants can reach the national highway within two to three hours after sneaking in and evading detection due to thick forests and riverine terrain. In the past, terrorists infiltrated through the International Border of these two districts and carried out fidayeen attacks on Army posts on the highway from Punjab to Jammu in March this year.
Since the Amarnath yatra starts from Jammu, the security agencies are now working overtime to plug the breaches and take counter measures to deny any opportunity to the militants to target pilgrims, they said. The local administration too has increased vigil around the camps housing pilgrims by deploying more security personnel. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to visit Jammu on July 17, thereby, posing a fresh challenge to the security forces to prevent any untoward incident.
In the meantime, two girls died in a cloudburst in south Kashmir on Sunday and the authorities halted the Amarnath pilgrimage due to heavy rainfall. The vital Srinagar-Jammu National Highway too was closed for vehicular traffic even as the water level continuously swelled in tributaries of the River Jhelum as rainfall that started on Saturday midnight continued for the whole day on Sunday.
The International Border has seen intermittent firing from Pakistan Rangers in the last few days killing one BSF jawan. Sources say Pakistan is testing Indian preparedness. Pakistan Rangers target BSF posts on International Border and give covering fire to militants to help them to sneak into Jammu.
last week, when heavy rain lashed the Jammu region, the BSF posts located in low-lying areas in Ramgarh sector of Samba suffered heavy damages. Twenty-eight BSF jawans were evacuated to safer places along with their arms and ammunition.
IG BSF Jammu Frontier Rakesh Sharma on Saturday visited border areas to take stock of the situation and directed local commanders to intensify manual patrolling to plug the gaps. The BSF is now relying on electronic surveillance and night-vision devices to maintain vigil following reports on increased infiltration bids in the coming days.
With many flood lights also damaged due to heavy downpour, the BSF has sent a detailed report to the Home Ministry for necessary instructions to speed up repair work of the lights and the damaged fence, officials said.
The line of Control (lOC) in Naugam too saw ceasefire violation last week claiming another BSF casualty indicating that Pakistan is desperate to push in terrorists into Kashmir. However, effective counter-infiltration and counter-insurgency grid has so far negated the ISI designs to escalate violence.
The summer months, generally, witness an upsurge in infiltration bids as the mountain passes used as ingress routes are accessible after snow melts. Reports say the Kashmir valley has so far seen five to seven infiltration attempts in the last two months and the security forces expect the tempo to pick up in the coming weeks.
Officials said dynamic counter-insurgency grid comprising the Army, paramilitary forces and the local police brought down infiltration last year. The effective measures included tightening the second and third tier anti-infiltration zones with mobile patrolling thereby apprehending or neutralising militants if they managed to get across the anti-infiltration fence. Also, the Army reduced the time in repairing the fence damaged due to heavy snow in many parts of the State thereby not allowing the militants to exploit these gaps.
The 750-km long anti-infiltration fence has reduced infiltration from across the loC to more than 75 per cent and the Army taking all measures to build on the advantages it accrued in the last year.
Elaborating on this aspect, officials said many young men could not go across to loC for training and foreign militants could not infiltrate.
This has led to paucity of experienced fighters and the militant organisations have now started training local youths within the State. However, their level of training is not very high, officials said. The next few weeks will see more attacks by these desperate militants but they will not able to create an impact by claiming casualties amongst the security forces, sources said.
The terrorists in the hinterland are low on arms and ammunition as their handlers from across the border could not send replenishments. The aggressive counter-insurgency measures also destroyed several caches of arms and ammunition and the militants are now likely to attack security personnel and snatch their weapons to make up for the shortfall, they said.