Heavy infiltration claims by Army contested by J&K police

The recent figures of about 100 terrorists having slipped into the Kashmir Valley this year seems to be an exaggerated figure, highly placed sources in the state home department said today.

Immediately after the conference of Directors General of Police in the national capital earlier this month, state police and home department flagged the issue and sought clarification about the number of terrorists who may have crossed over, official sources said.

The input provided by Director General of Military Intelligence and Defence Intelligence Agency about infiltration of nearly 24 militants from Uri sector in the month of July could not be substantiated either by the local army unit or state police, the sources said.

 

Extensive search was launched in nearby areas which later extended to Hafruda forests in frontier district of Kupwara, the sources said, adding that Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) were pressed into service to ascertain the inputs but there was no corroboration of the input.

Local Army commanders held series of meetings with police after there were no tell-tale signs of any terrorist groups infiltrating into the Valley from Uri sector in a big way prompting a senior state police official to comment in one such meeting that either the terrorists have vanished into thin air or that ghosts only crossed the Line of Control.

The J&K Police held series of meetings with local Army, Intelligence Bureau and other security agencies over the likely inflated number of infiltration, the sources said, adding that it was decided in-principle to work out a mechanism for more authentic information to ascertain the magnitude of infiltration. (More)