Militants across LoC waiting to infiltrate, says BSF chief

The BSF on Saturday said there were intelligence inputs about militants across the Line of Control (LoC) waiting to infiltrate into India but the force was taking steps to ensure "nearly impregnable" borders with the induction of newer technology and integration of the existing ones.

"I am told there is a concentration of militants on the other side waiting to be pushed into India for infiltration. These are the intelligence reports we have," Director General of BSF KK Sharma told reporters in Srinagar.

He was talking to the media persons after the wreath laying ceremony for three jawans who lost their lives in a militant attack on their convoy near Bijbehara on Srinagar-Jammu national highway on Friday.

The BSF chief said more troops have been inducted along the borders to strengthen the security grid to foil any infiltration attempt by militants.

"We are in the process of strengthening our fences and borders through induction of newer technology and the integration of the ones that already exist. Hopefully, the borders are going to become nearly impregnable," he said.

Sharma also warned of a threat to the upcoming Amarnath yatra, scheduled to begin in south Kashmir Himalayas but said they are "ready for the task" to ensure safe yatra.

"There are inputs about possibility of attacks on the Amarnath yatra. We are ready for the task as we have done in the past," he said adding "I want to assure you that this yatra will be incident free".

Referring to Friday's attack on the BSF convoy, Sharma said "it is a very unfortunate incident as three of our brave soldiers have lost their lives".

"As I understand, such incidents are random in nature. As we have seen, militants are targeting security forces in general and almost all forces bear the brunt of their activities. So this is to my mind a random incident," he said.

The BSF chief said the force has taken a number of remedial steps to prevent such type of attacks.

"As militants are attacking security forces, we become a natural target. We have taken a number of remedial steps," he said adding "We will see how we can further strengthen the security of our convoy movement".

The BSF DG said "we are not directly involved in counter-insurgency operations but our convoys move regularly because we have roughly 18000 troops on the border and for the purposes of leave, regular convoys ply between Srinagar and Jammu."

On Friday's attack, Sharma said "after such incidents, an inquiry is conducted and we will see what is the outcome," he said.