PHOTO: FILE
“This is time bound. It will be done by December, 2018. We are readying an action plan for that,” said Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday after a meeting with chief and home ministers of Indian-held Kashmir, Punjab, Rajasthan and Gujarat which share borders with Pakistan.
“A border security grid will be in place soon. The Indian government is also looking at technological solutions to man the border,” Singh was quoted by NDTV.
The decision comes as tensions escalate between the neighbouring countries following India’s ‘surgical strike’ claims in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK). Pakistan had rejected the claims, which were taken with a pinch of salt even by international media.
A leading US newspaper, The Washington Post, in an article on Sunday published interviews of locals living along the Line of Control (LoC). The majority of villagers in the three areas along the LoC said they did not witness any cross-border movement of troops or hear the sound of any helicopters.
The residents of Bhimber, Chamb and Sahmani said that a heavy exchange of fire did take place. However, no one said they had seen or heard anything that supported India’s claim that it carried out cross-border strikes on several staging areas for militant groups that left ‘double digits’ of militants dead, the article said.
Another well-reputed publication, The Diplomat, in a piece titled ‘Is India Capable of a Surgical Strike in Pakistan Controlled Kashmir?’ raised some serious questions about the capabilities of the Indian military.
The article asked whether the Indian forces have the requisite capability for those much-hyped ‘surgical strikes’. The piece took a critical look at India’s defence system, stating that the majority of the acquired warfare mechanisms and machinery are along the ‘Cold War’ lines.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 8th, 2016.
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