January witnessed sharp rise in infiltration bids
By IANSSunday, January 31, 2010
JAMMU - The first month of this year has registered a sharp increase in infiltration bids from Pakistan across the Line of Control (LoC) and International Border (IB) in Jammu and Kashmir.
“There have been 25 infiltration attempts along the LoC and IB this month only. And we cannot say as yet how many militants were able to sneak in,” official sources on condition of anonymity told IANS.
They said that there have been a total of five ceasefire violations of the LoC in the state and one of IB in the Jammu region.
According to these sources, there were about 85 incidents of infiltration in 2009, which were higher than 50 in 2008.
While the number of militancy-related incidents were coming down in the state, the casualty figures were still high. There were 485 incidents in 2009 that killed 85 civilians and 75 security personnel while there were 708 incidents killing 147 civilians and 85 security personnel in 2008.
Nearly 238 militants were killed in 2009 and 340 in 2008.
The highest number of 5,946 militancy-related incidents happened in 1995, the highest number of civilians, 1,424, were killed in 1996, the highest number of 485 security personnel were killed in 2000 and the highest number of 2,020 militants were killed in 2001.
The year 2009 witnessed least numbers of militancy-related incidents (485), least civilians killing (85), least security personnel killing (75) and least number of militants killed (238).
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah recently said: “The rising incidents of infiltration is a matter to concern for us”.
