NEW DELHI: The interception and killing of four Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorists in Nagrota in Jammu and Kashmir is seen as yet another success of the border network in J&K that was strengthened this year by combining strict surveillance by the Army and BSF troops at the LoC / international border with Pakistan, with good presence and higher alert levels from J&K police in border districts to intercept and neutralize terrorists who sneak in, before they can strike.
It is thanks to this robust anti-infiltration strategy, J&K law enforcement sources claim, that the cross-border movement of terrorists from Pakistan through October this year dropped to 38% of the levels observed in the corresponding period of 2019. According to infiltration data of J&K To which TOI had access, 77 terrorists tried to sneak into J&K from Pakistan until October this year, of which 17 died and 24 returned to Pakistan or Pakistani-occupied Kashmir (PoK), while the remaining 36 managed to enter to J&K.
In the corresponding period of 2019, around 200 terrorists had tried to infiltrate from Pakistan / PoK, of which 4 died, 62 returned, and 135 managed to sneak into J&K. Interestingly, while 27 of the 46 infiltration attempts in Kashmir until October this year were successful, only 9 of the total of 31 terrorists who tried to infiltrate from the LoC / IB in the Jammu region were able to succeed. Also in 2019, 76% of infiltration attempts in the Kashmir region were successful, while in the Jammu region it was contained at 7%. The infiltration increased shortly after the repeal of Article 370 at J&K on August 5, 2019, with 112 terrorists attempting to cross between August and October last year.
Month-to-month infiltration figures suggest that such attempts peaked in September this year with 20 attempts, 10 each in Jammu and Kashmir, although this was only half the number recorded in September last year.
October, another traditional high-infiltration month in which Pakistani teams try to infiltrate as many terrorists as possible before snow blocks the mountain passes, has recorded only 4 attempts this year, though none were successful. As of October 2019, 26 terrorists had attempted to infiltrate, 21 in Kashmir and 5 in the Jammu region, of which 12 were successful.
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