Pak relying heavily on foreign militants in JK

Srinagar, July 29: Pakistan is relying heavily on foreign militants for carrying out subversive activities in Jammu and Kashmir and no more trusted locals, defence sources said today.

''This is because the Kashmiris are now fed up with militancy and violence and want to join the mainstream,'' they added.

The sources said the surrender of more and more Kashmiri militants in the recent past has forced Pakistan to rethink on its strategy and as such favour foreign mercenaries to locals in carrying out subversive activities in the strife-torn state.

They said about 680-700 militants were active in Kashmir at present as compared to 1500 in the year 2000. Of these, 412 were locals and 265 foreigners, the sources added.

The sources said the Hizbul Mujahideen was the strongest of the militants groups active in the Kashmir valley with about 215-220 cadres while the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba has 162 ultras.

They said the number of militants have come down to half from 2000 because several top commanders and other cadres have been eliminated by the security forces in the past few years.

There have been 18 infiltration bids from across the border and about 45 militants killed during the past six months they added.

As many as 1441 allegations of human rights violations were reported during the past one year the sources said, adding out of these, as many as 1352 were found to be false.

They also said the presence of militants was 42 per cent higher in twin border districts of Baramulla and Kupwara than other parts of the troubled state. It used to be 80 per cent some years ago.

UNI