Infiltrators take advantage of hilly terrain
Shariq Majeed
Tribune News Service

Rajouri, January 28
With fencing along the Line of Control (LoC) falling in these twin frontier districts almost completed and modern gadgetry installed along it, one may expect the infiltration to stop. But that is not the case and infiltrators manage to cross over to this side despite the presence of thick fence and modern gadgetry.

Defence sources said the infiltrators crossing over to this side of the LoC had been able to exploit the hilly terrain along the LoC in these frontier districts. They said since troops could not show their presence everywhere along the LoC, so the infiltrators found it easy to sneak to this through the hilly terrain.

They added that the fact that the infiltrators had managed to exploit the hilly terrain in forward areas in Mendhar, Balnoi, Balakote, Krishnaghati in Poonch district and Bhimber Gali, Kanga Gali, Nowshera in this district, to infiltrate to this side of LoC could be gauged from the increase in the bids made by them during this year.

“We acknowledge the fact that infiltrators try to take advantage of the hilly terrain to sneak into this side. Sometimes they manage to successfully infiltrate, but in most cases, where they make infiltration bids, they are killed”, said a senior Army officer serving in a forward area along the LoC in Mendhar sector. “The fact that they are acclimatised to hilly terrain helps them to sneak into this side. They know the terrain better than us.”

The officer further said it was not easy to maintain guard along the whole length of LoC particularly in hilly stretches. This prompted the infiltrators to use hilly stretches along the LoC to sneak to this side, he added.

Jammu-based-defence spokesperson said “Till the time the training camps are intact in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK), the infiltration bids will continue.”

The Tribune early last year had reported that with security forces plugging the traditional routes used by the militants in Kashmir to infiltrate through the Line of Control (LoC), infiltrators seemed to have changed strategy by attempting to infiltrate through the “not-so-common” routes mostly in the hilly stretches along the LoC in the border districts of Rajouri and Poonch. It had also reported that infiltrators were using a Chinese liquid to dissolve the wire of fencing to cross over to this side.