Floods damage 40 km border fencing along LoC, IB in JK

Over 40 km of the three-tier border fencing and flood-lighting have been damaged by the recent floods along the LoC and IB in Jammu and Kashmir and security forces are racing against time to repair it to prevent cross-border infiltration ahead of winters.

With the Army expressing apprehension that militants might take advantage of the situation and infiltrate, work is going on round-the-clock to plug in the gaps on the fencing. 

"As many as 20 to 25 kms of border fencing has been damaged in various patches along the Line of Control in Kashmir and Jammu regions during floods", a senior Army officer told PTI.

Similarly, a BSF officer put the damage caused to fencing along the IB in Jammu frontier to 14 to 15 km along with flood-lighting.

Jammu and Kashmir has 734 Kms of LoC running through Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh regions from Kargil to Malu (Akhnoor) in Jammu district, while it has 190 km of International Border from Malu to Punjab belt running through Jammu, Samba and Kathua districts.

Anti-infiltration obstacle system (AIOS) has been deployed along 740 km along Indo-Pak border in Jammu and Kashmir.

Of these, 550 Kms of LoC has been fenced with flood-lighting along with 190 Kms of fenced IB.

As security forces battle floods to reach out to peoplefor rescue and relief, the BSF and the Army are also racing against time to repair the damaged AIOS along LoC and IB to prevent cross-border infiltration from Pakistan ahead of winters.

Army Engineers with their men and machines are working round-the-clock to complete the task in the shortest possible time and they have been able to plug the critical gaps in AIOS.

"We are racing against time to repair and reconstruct the damage fencing. The fencing has been damaged in patches. Where ever it was critical we put it up within two to three days", the officer said.

"The balance work is going on a war-footing", the officer said.

"We have been undertaking repair on a fast pace", a BSF officer said, adding that some of the sensitive places have been already repaired and manual patrolling and surveillance equipment monitoring has been increased in the affected areas.

Security forces said vigilance has been stepped up in the border belts.

As the winters are about to set in, the militant leadership in Pakistan will try to push in more and more militants to keep the pot boiling and to take benefit of the gaps caused by the washing away of fencing along the border to cross.

The Army had recently stated that around 200 heavily armed militants were waiting across the LoC to infiltrate into the Indian side.

"There are around 200 heavily armed terrorists across the LoC waiting to infiltrate into the Kashmir Valley," Lt Gen Subrata Saha, the general officer commanding of Srinagar-based 15 Corps, had said.

He said that infiltrators from across the border tried to take advantage of the recent floods in the Kashmir Valley, but the Army foiled their attempts.

Earlier last week, the General Officer Commanding of the White Knight Corps (16 Corps), Lt Gen KH Singh had said that "150 to 200" ultras were waiting at various launch pads on the other side of the LoC to sneak into the Indian side.