Defence minister, Army chief arrive in Jammu

In view of the heightened tension along the Indo-Pak border where six infiltration bids have foiled in the past one week, defence minister AK Antony and chief of Army staff Deepak Kapoor today arrived here to take stock of the security situation.

Antony, Gen Kapoor and defence secretary Pradeep Kumar flew in from New Delhi in an Indian Air Force plane this morning and straight away left for the Unified Command headquarter meeting at J&K chief minister Omar Abdullah's residence.

They would also hold a security review meeting with field commanders in view of the increasing infiltration attempts from across the border.

They are also likely to visit forward defence locations (FDLs) along the LoC in Rajouri and Poonch districts before leaving for New Delhi.

There have been five infiltration bids during the past one week in the valley. The first infiltration bid this year was foiled by Border Security Force at Narianpur border outpost in Ramgarh sub-sector of Samba district on January 4.

There was another bid in Balakote area of Poonch on January 8. A BSF patrolling party foiled the bid in the forward area of Garkhal in Pargwal belt of Akhnoor on January 10. On January 11, two infiltration bids were foiled in Sabzian in Poonch and Alfa Machial in Akhnoor in which one BSF jawan was killed.

Information from various security agencies involved in security grid in J&K has put the figure of infiltration attempts at 433 in 2009, which is 91 more than 2008.