STATE TIMES NEWS
Jammu: Asserting that 99 per cent infiltration attempts from Pakistan on the border have been foiled in Jammu and Kashmir this year, Director General of Police Dilbag Singh on Wednesday said the security agencies are fully alert and working to finish terrorism rather than just contain it.
He said the border security grid is “much stronger than ever” with the addition of “new elements” to scuttle any attempt from Pakistan to push terrorists and smuggle arms and narcotics.
“A number of encounters took place on the borders (in the recent past) which is a proof of the presence and alertness of our forces who are engaging them (infiltrators) at their place of choosing and neutralising them (before they manage to sneak into Jammu and Kashmir),” the DGP, flanked by Additional Director General of Police (Jammu zone) Mukesh Singh, told reporters on the sidelines of a function here. Security forces foiled several infiltration attempts along the Line of Control (LoC) in north Kashmir and Poonch-Rajouri belt of Pir panjal in the Jammu region in the recent past, killing nearly a dozen infiltrators and seizing huge consignments of arms, explosives and narcotics over the past two months.
The police officers were present at a foundation-laying ceremony of the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) headquarters at Sidhra by Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha. The six-storey building on over half an acre of land is likely to be completed in 15 months. “Though the infiltration attempts are going on, we do not see an upward trend. Our border security grid is much stronger than before with the addition of new elements (to thwart infiltration attempts from Pakistan). We have already foiled 99 per cent of such attempts this year,” Dilbag Singh said.
Asked about the killing of a self-styled divisional commander of Hizbul Mujahideen along the LoC in Poonch district on August 7, he said Pakistan is making attempts to revive militancy in the Rajouri-Poonch belt and other places.
“Our efforts are not only to contain terrorism but to finish it completely. Whenever an infiltration attempt is being made, whether we had prior information or not about it, our security arrangements are such that they (infiltrators) walk into our net,” the DGP said. He said the overall security situation in Jammu and Kashmir is “very good” even as the “conspiracies” from across the border have not ended. “They are sending improvised explosive devices (IEDs), weapons and narcotics which is evident with our successful interruption and seizure of such consignments in Rajouri-Poonch and north Kashmir,” the DGP added.
He referred to the timely detection of an IED at Nagrota near here along the Jammu-Srinagar national highway on the intervening night of Monday and Tuesday and said police and other agencies are fully alert to the threat and are foiling the conspiracies. “It is clear that such devices are coming from across the border and are the handiwork of active terror outfits and their cadres. The investigation (in the IED recovery case) is going on,” the police chief said.
On the law and order situation in Samba where protesters blocked the Jammu-Pathankot highway and clashed with the police over their demand for removal of Sarore toll plaza, he said people should raise their grievance, if any, to the government in a proper way. “Putting the commuters to difficulty by blocking the road neither falls in the purview of the law, nor will it be allowed. The overall situation is normal,” he said.