NIA report raises questions on border security

NEW DELHI: THE National Investigation Agency (NIA) has compiled a report in which it has raised serious questions on the current security arrangements along the country’s international borders in the Jammu region and has warned of grave security threats in the foreseeable future.

The report, as seen by this newspaper, has culled out data on recent infiltrations and terrorist movements on the basis of investigations against terrorists nabbed.

The report states, “The continuing infiltration of the armed terrorists into the Indian territory from the Jammu Frontier poses a grave threat to security establishments and vital installations in this area.”
It says terrorists continue to find unfettered access to Indian territory “despite an organised structure in the form of the Border Protection Grid”, adding “infiltrations have remained unabated which is a cause of great concern.”

Elaborating on why the number of active terrorists continues to remain on higher side despite a noticeable spike in the number of operatives neutralized by the security forces in the Kashmir Valley in the recent past, the report states that the terrorists are using a new route to sneak into Indian territory. The report further states that as many as 33 terrorists managed to sneak into India in seven separate cases of intrusion.
It has also stressed on a ‘holistic approach in formulation and implementation of a security plan’. “The security setup is largely focused on the border and the hinterland is rather neglected,” the report states.

It says that to curb the movement of terrorists from across the border into the mainland, there’s an urgent need to strengthen our second and third lines of defence, in addition to ramping up border security. The Border Security Force is the first line of defence in a larger area.

The report recommends a “thorough exercise to identify and plug possible points of infiltration by using the latest technology”, in addition to “regular anti-tunneling exercise”.It says strengthening the second and third lines of defence is of the essence to ensure that “any terrorist who manages to cross the first line should face equal difficulty in movement towards hinterland”.

The report says that terror operatives and their handlers have exploited the pattern of the Indian security deployment and a “change in deployment pattern and routine is a must as the same has been studied well and exploited by the terrorists.”

Detained scribe charged

The Jammu and Kashmir Police has charged detained journalist Asif Sultan and nine others, including a woman of hatching criminal conspiracy,  harbouring militants and giving support to militant outfit involved in a shooting incident in Srinagar last year in which a policeman was killed. A police official said police has filed a charge sheet in respect of the case — FIR No 173/2018 of P/S Batamaloo. He said the FIR pertains to the August 12, 2018 incident where militants, hiding in a house at Diyarwani area of Batamalo, in uptown Srinagar, fled from the spot after firing on a police party, killing Parvaiz Ahmad, a policeman.Militants of Hizbul Mujahideen were allegedly involved in the shooting. Asif’s arrest came in the wake of his cover story on militant Burhan Wani, who was killed in an encounter on July 8, 2016,  in the magazine in July.Fayaz Wani