Armys surveillance grid is proving highly effective in helping the Army units deployed on the Line of Control (LoC) to neutralize the infiltrators. In the last four months,Army has been able to kill around 70 75 infiltrators on the LoC in North Kashmir and most of the militants groups were spotted by the Armys Surveillance Grid soon after the infiltrators sneaked into Valley through treacherous and rugged mountainous routes and passes. Army recently had killed 14 militants believed to be fresh infiltrators in six different encounters in Nowgam,Tanghdar and Keran sectors of the Valley. Sources said the movements of these small militant groups were picked up by the Armys Surveillance Grid installed on the LoC and operations were launched soon after the militant movements were caught on thermal imagers and other gadgets. Our sophisticated surveillance grid is proving very effective on the LoC in tracking down the movements of infiltrators, Defense spokesman Lt Col J S Brar said. The success rate of these latest gadgets is very good and the use of these equipments has been rated as highly successful, he said. Army officials claim that the surveillance equipment are latest and can even distinguish between grass and grass cropper,however,compared to winter months these gadgets prove more effective during summers when the chances of infiltration are high. In summer months,Army mostly relies on the surveillance grid,while as in winters the main thrust is on the human intelligence, he said. Though,Army regularly keeps on patrolling the LoC,however,the use of thermal gadgets have given edge to the army in neutralizing the militants right on the LoC. Besides putting up a 434-km-long barbed wire fencing along the LoC,the Army has also installed Israel-made sophisticated equipment,Surveillance Grid,in sensitive areas of north Kashmir. The Surveillance Grid is the first monitoring system of its kind in South Asia. The grid makes combined use of high-power cameras,thermal sensing cameras and long-range observation system to register all movements along the LoC. Sources said that the cameras fixed in the grid are very powerful and can catch any movement up to 20 km even during the night. The Army in the state has been using a number of surveillance equipment like ground sensors,hand-held thermal imagers,long-range reconnaissance and observation systems (LOROS) and battlefield surveillance radars (BFSRS). Though army has been relying on this equipment from past many years,however,in the recent more latest gadgets have been added to the grid.
