In a major setback to talks on troop reduction in Jammu and Kashmir, the Army has reported a three-fold increase in successful infiltrations from across the border in the month of April. The Army’s latest intelligence assessment puts the number of infiltrations in last month to 79, a startling three-fold increase from 2006 when only 27 terrorists managed to cross over in April.

The sudden spurt comes as a surprise as things had been extraordinarily peaceful during the first three months of the year with just 17 terrorists managing to infiltrate into the country. This, among other things had formed the basis for PDP’s demand to reduce troops in the Valley.

The latest assessment shows that infiltration is on a three-year high with 96 terrorists crossing over till April, 2007 as against 75 in 2006 and 37 in 2005. However, what has surprised the Army is a huge surge in the number of infiltration attempts in the month of April. Over 82 attempts were made to push terrorists into this side of the border this April as against 2006 when 43 incidents were reported.

“It appears as if they had been regrouping and waiting for a chance to cross the border. This appears to be timed with some pressure to withdraw troops,” a senior official said. He added that a similar tactic was used during the Kargil war to flood the country with infiltrators while forces were engaged elsewhere.

The assessment figures, drawn up from intelligence inputs as well as communication intercepts, pertain to not only LoC violations but also to infiltration from other places like the coastline, Nepal and Bangladesh.

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