Large number of militants waiting to cross LoC, says top Army official

A top Army official has said that a large number of militants are waiting to cross the Line of Control (LoC) from the Pakistani side and sneak into Kashmir.

Srinagar, Sep 2 : A top Army official has said that a large number of militants are waiting to cross the Line of Control (LoC) from the Pakistani side and sneak into Kashmir.

"There is no doubt that they (militants) are ready in large number in training camps," said Lieutenant General S.S. Sekhon, General Officer Commanding of Army's 15 Core Division in Jammu and Kashmir.

"But we are fully prepared - our contra-infiltration deployment is very effective, multi geared, fenced and with surveillance system. Whenever they have tried we have shot them down," Lt. Gen. Sekhon added.

Terrorists, who were trained in camps situated in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, generally infiltrate into the Indian Territory during summer months.

According to the army, the number of successful infiltration attempts by the terrorists showed no significant dip, and the month of April recorded a spurt with the infiltration figure becoming three times.

The successful infiltration bid by militants from across the border in Jammu and Kashmir has trebled to 79 in April 2007, as compared to the same month of previous year.

In April, the army was able to foil only three infiltration attempts and in March all the eight infiltration bids of militants were successful, while the army managed to foil all the seven infiltration bids in February.

Till March this year, the infiltration had declined by close to 50 percent as the months of February and March witnessed seven and eight infiltration respectively as compared to 14 and 20 during the same period in 2006.

ANI