Infiltration into Jammu and Kashmir from across the border is showing a phenomenal spurt and has almost doubled in the last two months of April and May in the backdrop of growing militant strikes across India.
The latest army assessment puts the number of attempts to cross the border at 79, almost a three fold increase from
April last year when only 27 terrorists had managed to cross the border.
The unexpected spurt has taken the security forces aback as the first three months of January, February and March
had only seen just 17 terrorists passing through while the majority of them took place in April this year.
"But in May we are experiencing almost two to four attempted crossings by big groups daily," army officials said.
The push at infiltration is also coming as civil unrest is on the rise in Pakistan.
Along with rise in infiltration, the number of militants surrendering is also up. As compared to a total of 210 militants surrendering, the first three months of this year alone saw 41 surrenders.
Unlike in previous years, when surrenders were taking place within the valley, the militants groups now laying down
arms, are the youth who have spent a considerable time in militant training camps in POK and are giving themselves up
right at Line of Control.
"It is almost like surrenders with consent from across the border through feelers," army officials said.
But, what has made the intelligence agencies alarmed is information from these militants that agencies in POK were
pushing across other militant groups to make them contest elections to the state assembly next year.
The figures compiled through sophisticated intercepts indicated that infiltration was taking place not only through
the Line of Control but was also being managed through land routes via Bangladesh, Nepal and even sea routes.
The militants mainly used Kupwara, Gurez belt for infiltration in April while the traditional routes of Poonch and Rajouri were being used in the winter months of January to March.
In April alone, figures indicated that as many as 45 militants had been killed most of them on the border against the figure of 26 and 21 in march and February.