Antony reviews Jammu and Kashmir security situation

JAMMU - Defence Minister A.K. Antony Tuesday reviewed the security situation in Jammu and Kashmir and asked the defence forces to mount further pressure on militants to neutralize them at every level.

The defence minister, on a days visit to the state, was briefed about the anti-terrorist operations across Jammu and Kashmir and the recent successes in the operations in the Khrew forest in Pulwama district and Reasi district and on Tuesday in Pulwama.

He presided over the unified command meeting, in which it was felt that the current situation called for intensive operations against the militants in the state, and also put an effective mechanism in place along the Line of Control (LoC) and the international border to check infiltration.

The defence minister said the need of the hour is to further mount vigil along the LoC and make the militants run for cover”, according to a source at Tuesday’s meeting.

Antony also reviewed the anti-militancy measures taken by the security agencies aimed to keep the state free of any major incident in 2010.

The Indian Army commanders present at the meeting made it clear that the army was alive to the situation on the LoC and the “desperate bids” by Pakistan to push in infiltrators. Pakistan is up to something big, we need to know what it is. We are keeping our antennas up on the issue, a senior army commander said at the meeting.

The Border Security Force (BSF) officers gave a detailed account of the Pakistani Rangers bid to facilitate groups of infiltrators by regularly violating the ceasefire and causing damage to the barbed-wire fence along the border.