Keran: No infiltration attempt was successful along the Line of Control (LoC) in north Kashmir’s Keran sector in over a year as there is multi-tier deployment of troops and surveillance equipment to maintain vigil, a senior Army officer said here.
“Troops deployed along the LoC in the sector have intercepted terrorists twice in over a year,” Brigadier Tapas Misra of the 268 Infantry Brigade said during an interaction with the media here.
The 268 Infantry Brigade is headquartered at Pharkian. It is responsible for manning the 55-km-long LoC in the sector in north Kashmir’s Kupwara district.
“We have intercepted twice. There has been no successful infiltration in our area,” Misra said.
Brigadier Misra said a multi-tier deployment was in place to stop infiltration.
“Some of it is physical, some is electronic. It is a great combination of man, machine and surveillance, due to which we are able to ensure that no infiltration happens,” he added.
The Army officer said the ceasefire agreement reiterated in February last year was holding up well and no incident of violation has taken place so far.
He, however, added that ceasefire or not, troops would guard the border.
“We have to be alert, and the boys are all up and about. We are maintaining our vigil,” Misra said.
Asked if the ceasefire agreement has helped in reducing infiltration, he said, “It is very difficult to correlate the two directly. The dynamics are different.”
The Army officer said there were inputs about “presence of terrorists at launchpads across the LoC” and the troops were on alert.
“We have ensured that we have whatever we need for our sector to keep the way it is. It has been reasonably good over the last year and so far this year,” he said.
Asked if there was any incident of drone spotting, the officer said he was not aware of it. On whether any anti-drone system was deployed in the sector, he said, “If somebody comes, we can detect it, we can see it, we will bring it down.”
Asked if anything has changed since former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan’s exit, Brigadier Misra said, “It is too early for it to be visible or to manifest for us. So, can we put our guard down? No. Are we alert every night? Yes.”
