Pakistan has activated 20 terror camps, 20 launch pads along LoC: Officials

Officials said around 50 terrorists were present at each of the launch pads, and infiltration attempts were on to push as many across the border before winter begins.

A file image of an Army jawan in Jammu and Kasmir | Representational image | PTI

New Delhi: Pakistan has activated at least 20 terror camps and another 20 launch pads along the Line of Control with increased efforts to ensure infiltration of as many terrorists possible into Jammu and Kashmir before winter begins, officials said Tuesday.

The terror training camps and launch pads, with at least 50 terrorists in each, were activated after these were temporarily shut down following the bombing of a CRPF bus in Pulwama in February and subsequent retaliatory bombing of terror camps in Balakot by the Indian Air Force.

“We have intelligence inputs that Pakistan has activated at least 20 terror training camps and another 20 launch pads with about 50 terrorists in each. All these terrorists will infiltrate through LoC wherever and whenever there are opportunities,” the official said.

Director General of Jammu and Kashmir Police Dilbag Singh said 200 to 300 terrorists are active in the state and Pakistan has intensified cross-border firing to push in as many of them as possible before the onset of winter.

“The number of active terrorists (in Jammu and Kashmir) is between 200 to 300… The figure usually does not remain static and goes up and down,” Singh told reporters during a visit to the border district of Poonch Sunday.

Singh has also said a large number of ceasefire violations are taking place in both Kashmir and Jammu regions.

The ceasefire violations have been taking place in Kanachak, R S Pura and Hira Nagar (along the International Border) and quite frequently along the LoC in Poonch, Rajouri, Uri, Nambla, Karnah and Keran.

There have also been intelligence inputs that top terrorists belonging to the Lashkar-e-Taiba, Hizbul Mujahideen and Jaish-e-Mohammad, operating in Jammu and Kashmir, recently held a meeting and decided to intensify their attacks on security forces and other sensitive targets, another official said.

Following the central government’s 5 August announcement of the scrapping of the special status given to Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan also intensified its diplomatic offensive against India, especial in the West.

In the recently concluded United Nations General Assembly in New York, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan said the situation in Kashmir would deteriorate once the restrictions imposed there is lifted.

“You hope for the best but be prepared for the worst,” he said.

Khan said once the curfew is lifted, “there will be a reaction” and India would blame Pakistan.

“Two nuclear-armed countries will come face to face, like we came in February,” he said, a reference to the stand-off between the two nations following the Pulwama terror attack and India’s subsequent air strikes on terror camps in Balakot in Pakistan.

The central government has been maintaining that there is no curfew or restriction in Jammu and Kashmir and Section 144 of the CrPC (banning unlawful assembly) is in force in only 10 police station areas of Kashmir, out of 196 police stations.