NEW DELHI/SRINAGAR – India’s Ministry of Home Affairs has decided to deployat least 2,500 additional security personnel to Jammu and Kashmir amid arising number of attacks on its occupational troops in the disputed valley.
The decision was taken during a high-level meeting of the ministryofficials on Wednesday after intelligence suggested the valley was seeing adeterioration in law and order.
A surge in violence in Indian-held Kashmir in recent weeks, including aspate of suspected rebel attacks on civilians and a widespread crackdown bysecurity forces, has left at least 33 people dead in the heavilymilitarised region since early October.
Indian security forces have launched a wide crackdown, killing 13 civilianin the last two weeks in multiple operations across the Kashmir valley.
During the past week or so, the Indian military has also been battlingrebellion in a forested area in the Jammu region, which abuts the Kashmirvalley, and has lost nine soldiers – the most number of casualties in asingle operation in recent years.
The number of Indian troops in Jammu and Kashmir is close to 600,000although estimates vary and the Indian government refuses to releaseofficial figures.
Jammu and Kashmir, which is claimed in full by India and Pakistan but ruledin parts by the two neighbours, has been the site of a bloody armedrebellion against New Delhi since the 1990s.
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Tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbours remain high since August 2019when Prime Minister Narendra Modi had abolished Article 370 of theconstitution, ending the autonomy and removing its statehood by splittingthe disputed region into the two federal territories of Jammu and Kashmirand Ladakh.
Meanwhile on Thursday, the Indian army said it has deployed modern M-777ultra-light howitzers and L-70 Bofors artillery guns in the Tawang sectorof the Ladakh region bordering China.
“The guns can bring down all unmanned aerial vehicles, unmanned combataerial vehicles, attack helicopters and modern aircraft. The gun hasenhanced target acquisition and automatic target tracking capability underall weather conditions with high-resolution electro-optical sensorscomprising a daylight television camera, a thermal imaging camera, and alaser range finder,” Capt. Sariya Abbasi said, as quoted by the ANI newsagency.
The Indian armed forces have also boosted the deployment of militaryaircraft, including unmanned aerial vehicles, in the Arunachal Pradeshsector of the border with China.
The tensions in Ladakh between China and India escalated last May.Following several conflicts between the countries’ military units in thearea of Pangong Lake, Beijing and New Delhi increased their militarypresence on the border.
