by Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU: Under the garb of ceasefire violations, Pakistan has set up five new launching pads for the militants along Line of Control (LoC) and International Border (IB) on their side across Jammu and Kashmir to help terrorists infiltrate but security forces have spotted all these camps and were maintaining strict vigil on them.
Sources told the Excelsior that five new launching pads have been noticed by the security personnel-three across LoC and two across IB during heavy mortar shelling and firing on the borders after September 29 surgical strikes by the Army inside Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK).
However, barring one or two places, no activity of the militants has been observed at any of these camps, sources said, adding that Army and BSF have been keeping strict vigil at the places, where these camps have come up, to ensure that even if the militants try to infiltrate, they don’t succeed and or neutralized well in time.
The launch pads have come up with active connivance of Pakistan army as they were located very close to the enemy posts along LoC and IB. It was not possible to set up the launch pads without the help of Pakistan army or Rangers, sources said.
All such type of terror launch pads and camps had been packed up by Pakistan army and Rangers on their side of LoC after successful surgical strikes by the Indian Army on September 29 in which about 50 militants of Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), apart from Pakistan army personnel, were killed.
The Pakistan army had taken the militants far away from the LoC after Indian Army hit the launch pads and the militants at four places along the LoC.
Asserting that surgical strikes had delivered crippling blow to the militants, sources said the LeT and JeM activists were now trying to recover and regroup themselves around LoC and IB to make fresh attempts of infiltration into the Indian territory. In fact, they added, a number of intrusion bids were made by the militants at both LoC and IB under the cover of mortar shelling and firing by the militants. But all such attempts were foiled by alert jawans of Army and BSF at LoC as well as IB.
“The militants had failed in their plot to sneak-in under covering fire of Pakistan army and Rangers. All those trying to intrude had retreated. Some of them had been killed or injured,” sources said.
They added that in the coming days, the militants could make more attempts to infiltrate into Jammu and Kashmir. In view of this, Army and BSF were already maintaining very high alert all along the LoC and IB to ensure that the militants didn’t succeed in their designs.
According to sources, during past couple of days when there was no mortar shelling or firing on the borders, the militant activities in the new launch pads have also not been observed, which indicated that they were operating along the pads under covering fire of Pakistan army.
“With no shelling on the LoC, the militants seemed to have retreated behind in anticipation of pro-active action by the Indian troops,” they said.