Re: Why we failed in FATA

Islam,Terrorism and Jihad

29 Aug 2008, NewAgeIslam.Com

'800 militants waiting to cross over from PoK'

Pioneer News Service | New Delhi The security forces are geared for a "hot summer" in Jammu and Kashmir as the Pakistan Army and ISI continue to actively support terrorists by training them and providing launch pads for infiltration into India. With reports suggesting that militants responsible for Wednesday hostage-taking in Jammu were helped to sneak into the State during diversionary ceasefire violation by the Pakistan Army, the Indian Army is forced to step up vigil along the border.                         A spate of intelligence reports has indicated that the Pakistan Army and ISI have directed the infiltrators to step up levels of violence in order to disrupt the forthcoming Assembly elections. About 130 infiltration bids in the last three months were an indication of this phenomenon and security officials fear that the bids and levels of violence may go up in the next few weeks. They are now re-drawing the overall strategy to deal with the situation and honing tactics at the sector level in the backdrop of inputs that more than 800 terrorists are waiting to infiltrate into India from across the LoC and International Border, sources said here on Wednesday. Reports also point out that the terrorist infrastructure was intact in PoK and about 40 terrorist training camps were running there, besides in the northern areas and the mainland. The ISI and Pakistan Army are actively supporting them and providing the jihadis with launch pads close to the LoC and the International Border for sneaking into the border State. The security establishment is concerned that the Pakistan Army is now resorting to its old tactic of firing at the Indian posts as a cover for terrorists to infiltrate and the Jammu incident was one such example. Pakistan had honoured the mutually-agreed ceasefire on the 750-km-long LoC for the last four years. It, however, violated the ceasefire in April this year and 30 incidents of ceasefire violation have so far taken place, though the Indian troops are exercising the maximum restraint. The violations were reported to the Pakistani authorities through established channels of communication but little came out of it, sources said. Meanwhile, Minister of State for Defence MM Pallam Raju said here on Wednesday that forces inimical to India were trying to disrupt the forthcoming elections in Jammu and Kashmir. He, however, asserted that the Government was well prepared to neutralise any problem that may arise. "The election process is on (in the State) and we expected that there will be attempts to disrupt it and infiltration is part of that bid. But we are prepared as a nation to quell any problem that may arise," Raju told newspersons on the sidelines of a defence seminar here. "Forces that are behind the disruption want to show that they exist. We are taking all efforts to see that they do not get an upper hand and they will be neutralised," he said. Raju, however, discounted the Amarnath shrine land controversy as the prime reason for the increase in infiltration bids. He reiterated that the terror attacks were entirely to disrupt the elections. "Unfortunately, the Amarnath controversy has happened at a wrong time. But it has nothing to do with it (infiltration and terror attacks)," the Minister clarified. As regards Pakistan breaching the ceasefire agreement to help militants infiltrate into the country, Raju said, "I think we all know what is happening on the border. It is important that we exercise restraint, but be prepared. That's what we are doing." View Source article: http://dailypioneer.com/indexn12.asp?main_variable=front_page&file_name=story3.txt&counter_img=3