New Delhi: The BSF is likely to do Road
Opening Party (ROP) duties also in certain militancy hit areas
and units of Rashtriya Rifles shifted closer to the border in
a revamped security strategy in Jammu and Kashmir.
The Border Security Force, which has ROP expertise, will
help secure roads to facilitate safe movement of troops to the
Line of Control(LoC). The ROP job is currently being
undertaken by Rashtriya Rifles.
A proposal for taking out a battalion of (1,000 personnel)
from North Kashmir was cleared by the Defence Ministry in
consultation with the paramilitary force and J and K
Government, official sources said on Sunday.
The units of Rashtriya Rifles were also being shifted
closer to the border amid intelligence reports that
Pakistan-based terror organisations would be making desperate
attempts to enter into the valley from higher reaches in North
Kashmir in the coming months.
It may be mentioned that last year around this time,
battle-hardened terrorists of Lashker-e-Taiba had managed to
sneak into the Kashmir valley from Gurez and Kupwara and later
to other parts of the valley especially Sopore and Tral.
The presence of the Rashtriya Rifles as the second line
of defence would help in close coordination among the various
units of the Army deployed along the LoC. The BSF had the
expertise in ROP duties as the para-military force had bore
the initial brunt of militancy in early 1990s.
Another unit of the BSF was also being pooled in for ROP
from an Air Force location and was awaiting in-principle
approval of defence ministry. The depletion of the force's
strength would be augmented by the Army and in-house security
unit of the Indian Air Force.
BSF was being pushed in for the ROP role as certain
battalions of the CRPF were being pulled out of the militancy
infested areas for their deployment in Naxal-infested areas.
This is in addition to the reduction of 35,000 troops
which have been withdrawn from the border state during the
reign of the current National Conference-Congress government.
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah recently acknowledged
on the floor of state assembly that infiltration had increased
by 98 per cent in 2009 as compared to 2008.
Moreover, there were inputs indicating that many more
militants were waiting across the Line of control (LoC) at
different launching pads for infiltration into J and K, he had
said.
PTI
First Published: Sunday, March 21, 2010, 21:41