At LoC, it’s an unwilling suspension of disbelief
GAURAV C. SAWANT

LINE OF CONTROL, MARCH 14: Barely 65 metre from the nearest Pakistani post, Sipahi Bhim Singh peers through the moonless night from his bunker. Straining his eyes, he tries to make out any movement.

It is for soldiers like him, posted along the 740 km-long LoC and those involved in Counter-Insurgency operations that the government is acquiring Hand-held Thermal Imagers. And it is here on radio last night that Bhim Singh and his colleagues heard about the alleged involvement of the Army top brass and politicians in shady deals to procure more Hand-held Thermal Imagers – a news received with shocked disbelief.

‘‘It is unbelievable. We only hope it is not true. Generals caught accepting bribe is bad for the image of the Army,’’ he says. Across the LoC, scores of soldiers agree.

The Army acquired Hand-held Thermal Imagers barely two months ago with markings of Italy and the US. These devices have been given to each battalion at the LoC and select few in anti-insurgency operations for trials. Some of these thermal imagers have also been acquired from France and Israel.

‘‘We have very few of these Hand-held Thermal Imagers. They are excellent surveillance equipment. The device has to be switched on and it takes six minutes to get activated. Since it is a thermal imager, it seeks and locks on to the heat of a body and captures its signatures at night. It is specially effective in thick fog and mist in this mountainous terrain,’’ says a senior electrical and mechanical engineering (EME) officer posted in Northern Command. Soldiers in counter-insurgency operations have been using these devices while laying ambushes to catch terrorists at night. Soldiers sit behind boulders or trees near nullahs or rivulets at night. When a terrorist comes in the range (3 km in ideal conditions), his body temperature (97ø Celsius), which is higher than the surroundings, shows up as an outline on the imagers.

‘‘Since we are involved in counter-insurgency duties, we require more. But the requirement varies from battalion to battalion,’’ sources add. The Army higher command has made a commitment to the ground troops to provide them with all the equipment that’s required to fight terrorism and at the LoC. Now the soldiers realise at what cost.