The cross-border firing between the armies on both sides has regularly escalated with Pakistan often using artillery guns. In comparison, the first five days of this month witnessed around 49 ceasefire violations

NEW DELHI: There have been over 220 ceasefire violations along the Line of Control between India and Pakistan following the Centre nullifying Article 370 and dividing Jammu and Kashmir into two union territories in early August.

The data shared by security forces points to Pakistan’s regular attempts to ‘internationalise’ the Kashmir issue by carrying out ceasefire violations to not only dominate the Line of Control (LoC), but also provide cover to terrorists attempting to infiltrate into J&K, officials explained. The army has thwarted about 10 to 12 infiltration attempts made by terrorists operating from launch-pads near the LoC, following the changes made in the erstwhile state on August 5.

In comparison, the first five days of this month witnessed around 49 ceasefire violations. This figure with the 222 violations since after August 5 total 271 violations this month, which is the second highest this year. The highest was in July- 296.

Following the scrapping of Article 370, security forces expected an increase in ceasefire violations and attempts to push in terrorists into India by Pakistan. The cross-border firing between the armies on both sides has regularly escalated with Pakistan often using artillery guns. It recently did in Gurez sector on Tuesday. Officials explained that this cross-border firing could have been to provide cover to infiltration.

“About 10 to 12 infiltration attempts were made after the revoking Article 370, but they were thwarted. There have only been two successful infiltration this year,” an official said.

One of the infiltration was of a Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) group into Valley around July end. Another such group had infiltrated into J&K in March, officials said.

Recent intelligence inputs pointed at a recent JeM meeting in Bahawalpur chaired by Mufti Rauf Asgar- who is the brother of JeM’s head Masood Azhar- of passing instructions to launch pad commanders to push infiltrators into India. Inputs also highlighted that about 100 Afghan terrorists were prepared by Pakistan to infiltrate into India for carrying out attacks on Indian cities and J&K. Several Pakistani Special Service Group commandos were also broken into small groups in PoK to possibly carry out BAT attacks.

The terrorists waiting to infiltrate would have been tasked with ensuring more boots on the ground and in strengthening the weakening operational leadership in J&K. It comes in the backdrop of unsustainability of local terrorists. Moreover, terrorist recruitment of locals has been erratic this year. There were only six such recruitment last month, the lowest so far. The highest was in June at 25.

Terrorist initiated incidents in J&K’s hinterland were only seven in August, coming in the backdrop of the forces’ counter-terrorism and counter-infiltration grids. It is much lower as compared to the previous months, which had double figures such as 22 in May.