New Delhi, July 29
The Centre has embarked on an ambitious and expensive plan to put in place a permanent, effective and scientific mechanism along the 740-km-long Line of Control (LoC) to thwart another Kargil-type offensive by Pakistan.

Under the plan, electronic sensors, radars and thermal imaging systems are to be installed at vantage points on the entire LoC to tighten screws on massive infiltration and exfiltration of terrorists.

According to well-placed sources here, this exercise is of utmost importance in view of apprehensions in some quarters and assessments that Pakistan is desperate for internationalising the Kashmir issue and for achieving this it can launch another Kargil-type offensive.

Some of the state-of-the-art gadgets, procured from abroad, have already been installed at certain sensitive and strategic points on the LoC, the sources said. The process started in the wake of Operation Vijay.

The names of the places where these gadgets have been installed are being withheld for security considerations.

The sources said the devices installed had so far performed “satisfactorily”.

It is understood that the work on installing thermal imaging systems on some vantage positions on the LoC has been done with the help of Israeli experts. The equipment is still at under the experimentation stage as it has to be seen whether the imported equipment can work under Indian conditions and terrain, where the temperature can vary from — 40°C to 20°C.

The sources said the government was not relying on guarding the LoC by gadgetry alone. It planned to make use of surveillance aircraft as radars, electronic sensors and thermal imagers were not specific.