BAT attack, infiltrations keeps Indian Army on its toes

Srinagar, Oct 22: The Indian Army is gearing up to fight a huge infiltration bid planned by Pakistan. As part of the plan, Pakistan has decided to send in at least 300 of its terrorists into Indian soil.

The terrorists have now shifted focus to the Pir Panjal area as they find the terrain to be more favourable. It may recalled that in a BAT attack by Pakistan, three Indian soldiers were martyred on Sunday. However the Army successfully managed to foil an infiltration bid by killing two heavily armed terrorists.

The Army is moving at a quick pace to ensure that the terrorists are cleaned up before the winter sets in. Some areas of North Kashmir is already receiving heavy snowfall and some of the mountain passes for ingress remain blocked.

Recently, Corps commander of Srinagar-based 15-Corps Lieutenant General AK Bhatt said, "more than 250 militants are ready to infiltrate into this side of LoC (from Pakistan) but our soldiers are ready to foil their attempts,"

He further added that there would be more infiltration attempts in the coming months, but are forces are on high alert to foil such attempts.

General Bhatt put the number of active militants in Kashmir valley at around 300, including fresh recruits. He said that people in south Kashmir should take a lesson from people in north Kashmir "who haven't sheltered any militant outfit."

He said that since 1947, these people from north Kashmir have given them full support. We will try our best to help these people and recruit more and more boys from this area," he said.

Pakistan is clear about what it wants to do. It has been fighting India on several fronts, which also includes a propaganda war. The BAT attack, recent killings of the SPOs and the warning to resign is part of the propaganda war. Further the Hizbul Mujahideen has been directed to recruit heavily in the Valley. With the number of terrorists going up within the Valley, one has witnessed an encounter every single day. Further a hit-list of the top commanders too has been prepared and eliminating them would be crucial to curb the menace, officials also say.