Fayaz Bukhari
Srinagar, June 13: Defence Minister, Arun Jaitley, accompanied by top Army Commanders is arriving on two days visit to Kashmir to assess and review the security situation in the State and along the borders with Pakistan and China.
This will be Jaitley’s first visit to Kashmir after taking over as Defence Minister in Prime Minister Narendra Modi led NDA Government at Centre. The Defence Minister will be accompanied by Army Chief Gen Bikram Singh and Army Chief- Designate General Dalbir Singh Suhag during his two day visit to Kashmir.
The Minister is arriving on Saturday morning and will straightaway go to the BB Cantt headquarters of 15 Corps where he will be briefed by the top Army officers about the security situation. He will also hold meetings with the top security officials of the State and intelligence agencies who will brief him about the security situation.
Jaitley is meeting Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and Governor N N Vohra who will also brief him about the security situation and steps taken by security forces to maintain calm in the State. The Minister is visiting forward posts on Sunday morning before leaving for New Delhi.
The Minister will be briefed about the State of militancy in Jammu and Kashmir by the Northern Army Commander, Lt General D S Hooda and the Jammu and Kashmir based three Corps Commanders of 14, 15 and 16 Corps, Lt General Rakesh Sharma, Lt General Gurmeet Singh and Lt General K H Singh, soon after his arrival.
Jaitley will review the security situation along the Line of Control and International Border with Pakistan and Line of Actual Control with China. The Minister will be briefed about the infiltration attempts by militants from Pakistan occupied Kashmir into Jammu and Kashmir.
The Minister will be briefed about the strengthening of the counter-infiltration grid along the LoC over the years that has led to the decline of infiltration of militants from the PoK into Jammu and Kashmir. Security agencies said that this year not a single militant has succeeded in infiltrating into Jammu and Kashmir despite few efforts in Rajouri and Poonch sectors of the LoC.
The security agencies will also discuss the militant plans for infiltration into Jammu and Kashmir during this summer ahead of elections and counter strategy adopted by the security agencies. As per intelligence reports around 600 highly trained militants, mostly from the Lashkar-e-Toiba, Al Badar, Hizbul Mujahideen and the Jaish-e-Mohammad, are waiting at launch pads in the PoK near the LoC to infiltrate into Jammu and Kashmir.
Last year, Army had lost 12 jawans and 41 were injured in 149 ceasefire violations and firing incidents by the Pakistani army on forward posts along LoC in Jammu and Kashmir aimed at infiltrating militants into the State.
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