Ahead of J-K polls, militants step up attacks at LoC

Ahead of the assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir, army on Monday said that the infiltration attempts along the Line of Control are on with the militants employing a “desperate” trend by pushing in IEDs and huge cache of weapons in the state.

“The indications on the LoC are that infiltration attempts are on. But we have been able to successfully foil them till now,” General Officer Commanding of the Srinagar-based Chinar Corps, Lt Gen Subrata Saha said.

Lt Gen Saha said the number of militants “neutralized” this year was much higher than the previous year. “Over 129 this year as compared to 89 last year. The number of terrorists killed this year, 86, is also higher than the previous year’s 62. Even in the counter-infiltration, the number of terrorists killed have been substantially higher, it is 45,” he said.

The army commander noted that during the last one month, a new trend by the militants to push in more IEDs can be seen. “The trends that we have been noticing along the Line of Control – there has been a number of infiltration bids which have been foiled and the new trend we have noticed this time is this desperate bid to push in IEDs. It is absolutely new.”

Lt Gen Saha said the army had inputs about the attempts by the militants to disrupt the assembly election process in the state slated to begin on Tuesday. “We have inputs of different districts, different tehsils. We are working on those inputs. They are generally in line with what has been coming in the past, so we are keeping track of that trends. We are having elections in two districts and we are prepared for that. In fact, I am returning from these two places.”

Explaining further on the methods applied by the militants in the state, the army official stated that young boys and recycled militants are being recruited as part of their new strategy.

“The five terrorists who have been killed since the beginning of this month, in all the cases, certainly in four out of five, they were young terrorists, who were recruited recently. Secondly, if you see the kind of weapons with which they are coming, there are pistols, old snatched carbines and INSAS rifles and all.”