JAMMU, Nov 9: Alarmed over the stepped up infiltration and smuggling in of sophisticated weaponry into the State, the Union Home Ministry has recommended that the State Government shift villagers residing ahead of the Army pickets along the Line of Control (LoC) in the twin border districts of Poonch and Rajouri.Sources said the issue came up for discussion during the recent meeting held between senior Home Ministry officials and the State Government. The high-level meeting was attended by Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah and Chief Secretary Ashok Jaitly, besides senior security force and police officials. The Union Home Ministry officials drew the State Government's attention to the role of local people in guiding militants to successfully infiltrate into the state. They suggested that the people living ahead of the Army pickets near the LoC be shifted backwards. According to sources, the Chief Minister assured that the government would take a decision soon after the matter was reviewed.There areabout 275 families living in a dozen border villages sandwiched between the Indian and Pakistani pickets. Of them, 264 families are from Poonch district, while the remaining belong to the adjoining Rajouri district. In spite of them being Indian nationals, the security forces and police have virtually no control over them in view of the frequent heavy firing by Pakistan troops.Moreover, many of these people also have their relatives living in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir and were forced to act as guides for militants by the ISI. This is not the time that security forces have demanded the shifting of civilians from forward positions. A senior official said the matter was raised even in 1967-68, but was opposed by the local people as well as senior officials in the State administration.Pointing out that these areas had virtually become launching pads for infiltrating militants, sources said that militants sometimes stay in these areas for days together awaiting a proper opportunity to sneak deep insideIndian territory. Local villagers were forced to provide them with food and shelter, the sources said.To dissuade local guides from helping militants infiltrate, the security forces had themselves laid landmines at various places along the LoC recently instead of getting the job done through locals like the past. The mines were laid haphazardly to avoid detection of their laying pattern, sources said, adding that security forces also kept tighter checks on possible infiltration routes.The plan was successful and a number of militants were blown up in mine explosions or killed in encounters with the security forces while trying to infiltrate. However, local guides later started leading the militants horizontally instead of vertically along the LoC for a safer passage, sources said.
