Terrorists trying hard to infiltrate in J&K: Army

The army has noticed "hell of a lot of attempts" by terrorists to infiltrate into Indian territory along the international border in Jammu and Kashmir this year.

But, "we have a tight noose all over. The army has taken on them. Our intelligence is good and we come to know about infiltration attempts," the army's northern command chief, Lieutenant General BS Jaswal, said.

"There have been hell of a lot of attempts to infiltrate along the border. They (terrorists) are trying hard to infiltrate," he said.

According to the army, a total of 40 people have infiltrated across the border this year.

"We have official figures of the infiltration. As of now we have a figure of approximately 40 people. Last year by this time 93 had infiltrated," he said.

On the efforts being made by the force to combat infiltration, he said, "We have been able to fight. We have had number of encounters. We had shot 16 people in one case. We shot 11 people in another case. This has been there. But despite that there has been increase in their attempts."

He said, "But I don't have the figure off hand. But attempts would have been hell of a lot."

Explaining the difficulty being faced by the troops, the northern command chief said, "One has to visualise. The terrain is extremely inhospitable here. There are jungles. There are bushes. At times you cannot see a person going 10 yards away. The surveillance devices, etc, are not effective over there."

However, he said there was no information about infiltration attempts by the Taliban. "We have no confirmed reports about Talibans (infiltrating through the J&K border)," Jaswal said.

When asked about Chinese troop movements in Gilgit and Baltistan in Pakistan-occupied territories, the GoC said, "I do not have reach upto that area. Whatever I get about Gilgit and Baltistan it is from the tabloid. It is a strategic intelligence and that is not with us. At least at my level."

To a question on Chinese build up in the Karakoram region, he said, "It is far beyond the depth of strategic intelligence level which I have. We have not got anything about it."