When India’s anti-infiltration grid rattled the Pakistanis

New Delhi, Jan 07: In 2020, scores of terrorists from Pakistan attempted infiltration bids into India.

However just 44 managed to infiltrate in 2020, when compared to the 141 in 2019, officials said.

Rattled by the anti-infiltration grid that blocked several key routes, Pakistan carried 5,100 ceasefire violation, which was the highest since the 2003 truce. "There are 300 to 415 terrorists in various launching pads in Pakistani Occupied Kashmir (PoK) along the LoC ready to infiltrate into Jammu and Kashmir to disturb peace and normalcy by engineering violence," an official said.

"Pakistani agencies are using tunnels to push in armed terrorists, weapons, ammunition and explosive material in J&K.

"They are also using drones to ferry and drop weapons and explosive material into border areas in Jammu and Kashmir along with narcotics to finance terrorism," an official said.

This year, they are also trying to infiltrate terrorists into J&K even during the months of heavy snowfall.

"In December last year, terrorists infiltrated into Poonch despite heavy snowfall but were neutralized," an official said.

A group of four JeM terrorists entered Samba via a tunnel and were neutralized after a truck carrying them to Kashmir was intercepted on the highway at Nagrota in Jammu in November last year, they said.

Weapons and explosives besides narcotics were being dropped at seven places along the borderline with Pakistan in 2020, the officials said.

Security agencies identified over 20 entry routes along the Indo-Pak border in Jammu and Kashmir and put in place multi-tier security to thwart any attempt by Pakistan to infiltrate armed terrorists.

"Over 20 infiltration routes have been identified and the security grid has been strengthened to prevent the entry of armed terrorists," another official said.

Apart from the first-tier of security of the Army and the BSF, village defence committees (VDCs) along the LoC and the international border (IB) have been activated, police checkpoints have come up and patrolling done in the hinterland around the border, they said.

Ahead of the DDC polls, the ISI had sent a large number of terrorists close to border and was making attempts to aide their infiltration in Jammu and Kashmir. Their specific brief was to disrupt the elections and target the local leaders. However, the Indian security forces who were on very high alert managed to foil these attempts being made by the ISI backed terrorists.

Intelligence Bureau officials tell OneIndia that the ISI continues to make attempts to help infiltrate the large number of terrorists.

The IB officer also said that the Pakistan Rangers and the Border Action Team are trying to help the terrorists infiltrate into India. Last year there were an unprecedented number of ceasefire violations by Pakistan. The Pakistan Army had been providing cover fire in a bid to help the terrorists enter India.

However, the infiltration attempts were largely foiled by the Indian security agencies.

In November, the BSF intensified patrolling along the International Border with Pakistan in the Samba and Rajouri sectors of Jammu and Kashmir.

Following an order by the Director-General of the BSF, Rakesh Asthana, the forces began patrolling the above mentioned areas with an objective of unearthing more cross-border tunnels like the one used by the four Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorists, who were killed on November 19.