Home Ministry for freezing ISD code of J&K
From M.L. Kak
Tribune News Service

JAMMU, Oct 2 — The Union Home Ministry is said to have suggested to the Ministry of Communications to "freeze" the telephone code which would prevent people in Pakistan and occupied Kashmir to use the ISD facility for conveying messages to separatists in Jammu and Kashmir.

Official sources said that the suggestion has come from the Home Ministry after the security agencies received reports that anti-India agencies operating in Pakistan and occupied Kashmir conveyed urgent messages on phone to separatists in Jammu and Kashmir. And during the recent Pak shelling on Kargil town, one woman, who has been arrested, was acting as a conduit on the telephone, communicating incoming and outgoing messages. The woman would connect a top militant leader on phone to the Army unit across the Kargil sector and was found giving instructions to Pak troops on the range and direction of the shelling. Intelligence agencies had intercepted the phone calls in which the caller from Kargil would direct the Pak troops to fire shells 100 metres short or 50 metres long either towards the south or to the north.

The Home Ministry is in favour of "freezing" the ISD code for Jammu and Kashmir so that no caller could make a direct call to any telephone subscriber not only in Jammu and Kashmir but also in Punjab. The security agencies have received reports that the separatists have devised a two-pronged strategy to get in touch with their patrons across the border. They travel to Madhopur, 100 km from Jammu, or some other area in Punjab and use the ISD facilities to talk to the contact man in Pakistan or occupied Kashmir.

The Ministry of Communications has already "frozen" the ISD code, with the result that nobody in Jammu and Kashmir can talk to any person on telephone in Pakistan or occupied Kashmir. Hence, Punjab or Delhi are being used for getting a telephone link with Pakistan. The second strategy adopted by the separatists in Jammu and Kashmir is that they dial any contact man in London and from there, avail themselves of the facility of "telephone conferencing" to get in touch with their agents in Pakistan and occupied Kashmir.

Reports said that while the ISD code, which could connect a caller in Jammu and Kashmir to his or her contact man in Pakistan and occupied Kashmir had been "frozen", the militants had devised a highly sophisticated wireless system for conveying and receiving messages. During the past nine years, the security forces have recovered more than 500 wireless sets and 12 wireless stations in Jammu and Kashmir.

The use of wireless sets had, on many occasions, been helpful to the security forces as the interception of wireless messages have led to leakage of vital clues about the plans of the militants.

Meanwhile, security forces have launched combing operations in several belts of Poonch and Rajouri districts and during the past one week, more than 10 militants have been killed in these operations. Large quantities of arms and ammunition, including grenades and IEDs, have been recovered. Official sources said that the Army, the BSF and the police have launched joint operations to clear the villages of the militants. And after one month, the commandos of the NSG, who are at present receiving training at one of the Army schools in Rajouri, would be deployed in strength on the mountain belts of Poonch and Rajouri to flush out the insurgents, particularly the foreign mercenaries and smash their hideouts which they established during the past over two years.