New Delhi, August 24
India has revised its estimates regarding the number of militants that are ready to sneak into Jammu and Kashmir.

“There are reports that around 2,500 fully trained Kashmiri militants are ready to infiltrate into J&K from across the border/ LoC,” Minister of State for Home Jitendra Singh told Rajya Sabha while responding to a question by three MPs.

This is a huge upward revision. The government, in its earlier estimates had been stating that around 400-500 militants were believed to be waiting to cross the LoC. The revision comes just a few weeks after the New York Times reported that Pakistan has 12,000 to 14,000 fully trained ‘fighters’ ready to enter into India for terrorist activities. Sources said it is possible that US has shared some information with India that led to the revision in numbers. The US reportedly has a huge human intelligence network in Pakistan.

Interestingly, when the NYT report was published, Home Minister P Chidambaram had termed the figure given by the paper as “highly exaggerated”.

Almost echoing his sentiments, Lieutenant General Syed Ata Hasnain GoC 15 Corps had then stated that there were 42 terror camps operational in the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and around 700 ultras were waiting to cross over into the Valley.

In the last two weeks, there have been reports of major gunbattles between security forces and militants in North Kashmir. Also, there has been an escalation in number of infiltration bids along the LoC.

Meanwhile, MoS Home said the government has adopted various counter-terrorist methods to neutralise the efforts and capabilities of militants to disturb peace in the state.

"The government has also encouraged policies to provide jobs to the youth and discourage them from joining militancy," he said.

He said the Centre in tandem with the state government has adopted a multi-pronged approach to check infiltration. It includes giving improved weapons and equipment to security forces, improved intelligence and operational coordination.