Even as attention is focussed on the stand-off between India and China in Sikkim, the India-Pakistan border continues to boil with daily Cease Fire Violations (CFV).
In the last two weeks, there have been at least 22 CFVs of which over nine occurred from June 27-30 when the news of the stand-off between the Armies of India and China came out and both sides were engaged in a diplomatic showdown. In contrast for the whole month of June last year, there were only 10 CFVs on the LoC.
“There have been continuous CFVs on the LoC in the last few days, but there was no contact or infiltration attempts during them,” a senior Army officer said.
This is a slight departure in trend as in the last few months, since summer set in, there has been an uptick in CFVs as there were desperate attempts by militants to sneak across the Line of Control.
Cover to infiltrators
Normally, the Pakistan Army resorts to CFV to provide cover fire to the infiltrators.
The infiltrations were in itself an attempt to increase the number of militants in the Valley as the security forces eliminated several in a series of targeted operations.
So far this year, the number of CFVs has crossed 200 while for the corresponding period last year it was 14; it was 228 for the whole of 2016.
Similarly, while 140 terrorists were killed in 2016 both on the LoC and in the Valley, this year till June the number has crossed 80.
Forces on alert
With the end of the holy month of Ramazan and the beginning of the 40-day Amarnath Yatra, security forces are gearing for a major spike in CFVs, infiltration attempts as well as violence in the Valley.
July 8 also marks one year since the killing of local Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani which had plunged the Valley into unending violence. Security forces believe there will be attempts to create mass protests this week.
