Fresh intrusions in Batalik detected

SRINAGAR, JUNE 26: The Army has discovered instances of fresh intrusion after it stumbled upon the bodies of three Pakistani soldiers in ...

SRINAGAR, JUNE 26: The Army has discovered instances of fresh intrusion after it stumbled upon the bodies of three Pakistani soldiers in the Batalik-Yaldor sector. While one seems to have been in the area for quite some time now, the other two seem to have come in as recently as in June and one of them was carrying a letter from his children, which was dated June 5.This, army officials say, means that even as the Indian troops are busy tightening their hold over this area, reinforcements, ammunition and food supplies have been finding their way to the infiltrators.

The most startling evidence of Pakistani intruders still sneaking through the Indian Army noose in the Kargil LoC sector is a letter addressed to Havildar Afroz Gul of the 6 Northern Light Infantry, who was killed in the battle for the Tololing Ridge-Saddle-Hump-Point 4590-Point 5190 sector in Drass. The letter in Urdu is from the son and daughter of Hav Afroz. It was around June 5 that the Indian Army offensive in the Drass sector to clear theintruders from positions dominating the national highway was building up. Afroz died sometime between June 11 and 13 on the Tololing Ridge.According to Army officials, prolonged exposure to sunshine in the rarefied atmosphere at these heights causes sunburn. While the face of Lance Naik Mirbaaz Khan of the 4 Northern Light Infantry NLI is deeply sunburnt, the faces of Sepoy Mehboob Ali 3 NLI and Sepoy Saif Khan 4 NLI are almost yet untouched by sunburn. Sunburn at the heights where the Pakistanis are holed up turns exposed skin a deep red before blackening and the skin finally peeling off.

The other indicator is the growth of stubble on the faces of these three soldiers whose bodies are among the 15 recovered by the Army since operations commenced in the second week of May. Lance Naik Mirbaaz, whose ID card shows him to be clean shaven, has at least 2-3 weeks of stubble growing on his face owing to the difficulty of shaving in these conditions.

But the faces of both the sepoys show only a mildstubble, which is not more than a few days old. Sepoy Mehboob had seems to have got his head shaven before intrusion with his bald pate darkening with the first few days of new hair growth.

Amongst the other documents recovered at Tololing Ridge is a 8220;mule requisition8221; slip, which shows the number of mules having come in, the supplies brought in and the signature of the person who received the supplies and took charge of them.While the Indian Army has largely managed to follow its plan of 8220;logistically starving8221; the intruders, senior officers concede that owing to difficulty of terrain these people are still coming across all the sectors 8211; Mushko Valley, Drass, Kaksar and Batalik- in varying degrees. This is more evident in the Batalik-Yaldor sector where the topography favours intrusion most owing to the fact that the slopes facing PoK are less steep.Admits A K Chopra, Brig General Staff at the 15 Corps HQs here, 8220;Even now they can send in reinforcements and supplies as the troops are still in theprocess of getting behind them. You must understand that the terrain is a very difficult one.8221;

Meanwhile, Indian troops are now being moved in to cut off the western face of Tiger Hill in Drass since it allowed reinforcements for the estimated 100 intruders holing up in the most dominating feature overlooking the national highway.

Officers say Pakistani intruders had carefully plotted multiple routes for supplies to each dominating position and open up a new route once the cordon gets tighter. Heavy shelling keeps the heads down of the Indian troops in the cordon who are exposed in the open and porters and mules then sneak through under darkness and bad weather.