Kargil falls silent, rumblings heard in Jammu districts now

RAJOURI, JULY 17: The guns may be falling silent in Kargil but there has been a significant increase in Pak shelling along the LoC in Jam...

RAJOURI, JULY 17: The guns may be falling silent in Kargil but there has been a significant increase in Pak shelling along the LoC in Jammu, Rajouri and Poonch districts. Over 100 Pakistani soldiers have been killed over the last 10 days and heavy shelling has been reported in the Pallanwala and Nowshera areas. A defence spokesman said that ever since the capture of Tiger Hill and Sharif8217;s call for withdrawal, Pak troops have stepped up their shelling here.

Casualties on the Indian side, according to official sources, are not more than a dozen during the period. These include civilians living near the border, they said.

Nearly 1 lakh people have so far migrated from their native places near the Indo-Pak border, especially Pallanwala, Jourian and Pargwal areas in the wake of Pak shelling. Though there hasn8217;t been any migration from border areas in Rajouri and Poonch districts, there has been collateral damage to property and casualties among civilians, sources said. All agricultural activity all along theInternational Border and the LoC in Jammu has been suspended ever since the Kargil crisis began two months ago.

Senior defence and police officials feel that Pakistani troops may try to escalate the situation along the LoC in Jammu as, unlike Kargil, they cannot afford to have peace on this front and keep militancy alive in the state. In this connection, they refer to the recent firing of even missiles by Pakistani troops in Pallanwala and Jourian. And the repeated intrusion bids along with large groups of militants in Rajouri and Poonch districts under the cover of heavy shelling.

An Army spokesman said that while the involvement of Pak troops in Kargil was exposed to the world community, the situation was quite different in Rajouri and Poonch. Unlike in Kargil, Pak troops had only been pushing armed militants over to this side of the border in Rajouri and Poonch. They need not cross the LoC as they have direct control over militants even while sitting in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, he said.