ISLAMABAD – Amid massive cross-border shelling and firings, the Indiangovernment has built up over 5,000 steel and concrete bunkers across theLine of Control (LoC), the de-facto frontier that divides Kashmir betweenIndia and Pakistan near the international border.
The Indian Home Ministry has planned over 14,000 bunkers near the bordersuitable for families living in villages close to the frontier withPakistan.
“5,538 bunkers have been completed so far along border with Pakistanincluding 5,035 individual bunkers and 503 community bunkers”, a governmentofficial said in a meeting of a local body of border districts of the JammuDivision chaired by the divisional commissioner.
Hoping to keep the villagers safe in the event of persistent cross-borderfiringlink,the people residing in the affected areas have had to shift to safer placeson several occasions in the past.
To avoid this labour-intensive evacuation process, the government startedto construct 14,460 bunkers within five kilometres of the internationalborder and LoC.
The heavily militarised Indo-Pak border has been frequently witnessingcross border exchanges of fire between the two armies, causing mainlycivilian casualties on both sides.
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The two nuclear-armed nations have accused each other for violating the2003 ceasefire agreement over 3,000 times to date this year. In the lastone week, there was persistent artillery fire across the border,causing severalcivilians injurieslinkonthe two sides.
Pakistan has also planned concrete bunkers to protect their civilians fromIndian firing, but it has not started the programme yet.
Tensions have escalated between the two nuclear-armed nations since 14February, when 40 Indian security personnel were killed in a suicidebombing attack in Kashmir. A Pakistan-based terror group claimedresponsibility for it.
In August, India revoked the special status of Kashmir and turned it into afederally administered union territory, sparking the outrage of Pakistanand prompting it to raise the matter in the UN.
