Army will procure better technology to check infiltration

This year Army has eliminated 70 infiltrators along LoC.

The Army has decided to bring in better technology from other countries to reduce infiltration through the various mountainous passes in the Kashmir Valley and in Rajouri and Poonch districts of Jammu region. The decision followed the Pakistan army’s success in infiltrating around a hundred militants using these routes, despite surveillance.

General Officer, Srinagar based 15 Corps, Lieutenant General J. S. Sandhu told the media that they were in the process of getting some modern and smarter equipment to counter infiltration all along the LOC in J&K.

These efforts were started in November, but many Pakistani militants infiltrated the Kashmir Valley in spite of that. The Army already has a robust counter infiltration grid in Kashmir and during the current year they were able to eliminate about 70 infiltrators along the LOC.

The Army and the BSF have been using the latest equipment on the J&K border to target infiltrators. They have been using high power cameras, thermal sensing cameras, state-ofthe- art long range reconnaissance and observatory system ( LORROS) along with surveillance radars. The Army has also been using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVS) to monitor the movement of militants on the launch pads in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (POK).

The Army has fears that Pakistan may try to push in many infiltrators in December, before snowfall blocks all infiltration routes for the next four-five months.

The Army has put in its best efforts to contain militancy and perhaps they have signalled to the political leadership of New Delhi to take their efforts further by way of dialogue and reconciliation in Kashmir.

Meanwhile, Jammu and Kashmir DGP S.P. Vaid on Thursday hailed the Army for “operation all out”, after five militants were killed in twin encounters of Pakharpora and Sopur. He tweeted that the encounter of 200 militants this year is a huge landmark and will bring peace in the valley. The Army has also launched a number of programmes for the valley’s youths to wean them away from violence and also organised many musical shows, cricket tournaments in this direction. Recently, the Army launched one of the most massive cordon and search operations in the forests of Zirhama Lolab up to Kiran belt after they received inputs that many militants were waiting to sneak inside the Kashmir valley in this belt. The Army officially called off this operation on Thursday after more than a week of extensive searches in the forest. On the instructions of the Narendra Modi led Union government, the Jammu and Kashmir government has decided to give one job to one non-migrant family of Kashmiri Pandits. A state government official told The Sunday Guardian that they will shortlist 500 candidates from the 810 Hindu families who have been living in Kashmir.

The Centre has fast tracked all the recent decisions taken to address the issues in Jammu and Kashmir, especially the human issues. After announcing a package to families that had migrated to Jammu in 1947, the Union Home Ministry has instructed the state government to provide one government job to each family of non-migrant Hindus in the Kashmir valley.

West Pakistani refugees and those Hindu families who migrated from POK to Jammu are in the process of receiving the Central package. The Hindu Welfare Society of Kashmir has welcomed the move and said that they were completely neglected in the past many years. “We have been living in poverty. Employment to each family will provide the much needed financial cushion,” said one of the members of the society to this newspaper. A senior officer of the state government told The Sunday Guardian that Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir, Baser Ahmed Khan will select candidates from the few hundred non migrant Pandit families.

The president of Kashmir Pandit Sangarsh Simiti told The Sunday Guardian that he hopes that the procedures will be completed very soon. He said that these families were discriminated by successive Central governments. Sanjay Tikku further told The Sunay Guardian that he had filed a writ petition in the J&K High Court few years back seeking directions to the Central and state governments to extend the Prime Minister’s package to those Kashmiri Hindus living in the valley. The politically dominant Kapus in Andhra Pradesh have been included in the other backward classes (OBC) category, with a 5% reservation in educational institutions and government jobs. Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly passed a resolution piloted by Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on Saturday, fulfilling the 25-year-long demand by the community.

Now Kapus are categorised as BC-F, a new group in the list of 102 OBC castes. The quota for Kapus is applicable only to educational seats and job, but they cannot contest seats reserved for OBCs in the local bodies. Existing OBCs have opposed the entry of Kapus into the OBC list on the ground that the powerful community would corner all others in the reserved seats in the local bodies.