NEW DELHI: No infiltration has been reported along the India-China border during the last six months, the home ministry informed the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday. The ‘zero’ infiltration relates to the period that saw skirmishes between the Indian and Chinese troops along the LAC.
MoS (home) Nityanand Rai, while replying to a question in the upper House, however said there were 47 infiltration attempts along the Indo-Pakistan border between February and July 2020, of which 4 were in March, 24 in April, 8 in May and 11 in July.
Rai’s colleague, MoS G Kishan Reddy, in a reply to a different question said 28 of the 47 attempts were successful.
Rai said the government has adopted a multi-pronged approach to contain cross border infiltration, which includes multi-tiered deployment along the international border/LAC, improved intelligence and operational coordination, border fencing, deploying technological solutions and taking pro-active action against infiltrators.
During 2019, there were 219 infiltration attempts along the Indo-Pakistan border in J&K, of which 141 were successful. In 2018, of the 328 attempts, 143 went through.
Reddy, in another reply, said 26 civilians and 25 security force personnel were killed in J&K between August 5, 2019 and September 9, 2020 in ceasefire violations. As many as 45 civilians and 49 security force personnel, including 18 from the Army, were killed in terrorist incidents in J&K during this period.
The home ministry also informed the Rajya Sabha that 168 terrorists were neutralised in J&K till September 9 this year, as compared to 157 in entire 2019 and 257 in 2018.