Before Kathua attack, Pak objected to Indian cameras on the border

A senior BSF official said they have increased the deployment at the border outposts.

Two days before the Kathua attack in Jammu and Kashmir, when two militants stormed a police station and killed five people, including three security personnel, Pakistan raised objections to a number of surveillance cameras put up by India along the International Border (IB) in the past 10 months, since the NDA government came to power.

Sources said that during the DIG-level meeting between Border Security Force (BSF) and Pakistan Rangers held on March 18, the latter objected to a “range of high resolution surveillance cameras” put up by India along the IB, especially in Jammu sector. Though the meeting was held on the request of Pakistan after a gap of five months when incessant firing forced migration of villagers living along the IB, the Pakistan Rangers also objected to the use of UAVs by India. BSF mans the 192-km-long IB in Jammu.

On March 20, the Kathua attack claimed the lives of five people and injured 10. Though the route taken by the suspected fidayeen militants has not been established yet, it is being said they could have crossed over to Jammu through the riverine patches being manned by the BSF.

“We have installed a number of high resolution cameras along IB, which gives us minute coverage of any movement along the border. These cameras have come up in the past 10 months. Pakistan had strong objections to it and said we were using it to keep a surveillance on them,” said a senior home ministry official.

A series of intelligence reports in the past one week show pin-pointed information about Lashkar-e-Toiba’s (LeT) plan to push infiltrators into the Indian territory. Some intelligence inputs are specific enough to even name a former surrendered militant who returned from Pakistan Occupied Kahmir (PoK) in 2003 and “who was seen with four suspected terrorists in a Tata Sumo near the IB”.

“We keep receiving these inputs as LeT has several launchpads across the border. Last year we even destroyed one of the launchpads opposite Samba sector. In the past one week, we have come across at least 18 militants trying to cross over to India,” said a senior home ministry official.

Following the Kathua attack, home ministry asked the BSF to reassess the border security and pay attention to any vulnerable spots that could have aided the militants’ entry. “The Basantar riverine is a vulnerable patch. We are not saying the militants would have come in from this route but adequate measures were taken to plug the loopholes,” said the official.

A senior BSF official said they have increased the deployment at the border outposts.

“The modus operandi has been the same in all the three incidents ever since first such attack took place in Samba in 2012. Militants dressed in camouflage fatigues hijack vehicles, storm into a police station or an Army camp close to the IB and engage with security forces in an encounter. Since the incidents are reported close to the border, it is assumed that they would have crossed over to India through the IB. But till now we have not found any such evidence,” said the official. Even before the Kathua attack on March 20, BSF fired at two militants who were trying to cross over to India in the Arnia sector.

Source:: Indian Express