Flood-hit army relocates LoC posts

Seventy army installations, including camps, bunkers and posts, have been hit by the devastating floods in the Kashmir Valley but security forces have swiftly relocated the damaged and washed out posts to plug the gaps in the sensitive border areas.

The installations were partially submerged or totally inundated in the floods but security forces managed to rescue all troops manning them. "Floods have badly affected 30-40 camps, posts and bunkers in the hinterland which were meant for counter terrorism operations in Kashmir Valley", a senior army officer told PTI.

Similarly, 30 posts and bunkers have been badly affected along the Line of Control, while 10 to 15 bunkers were totally washed away, the officer said. "But we acted swiftly. We relocated and restored the posts and bunkers immediately. We left no gaps in LoC due to the washed out of bunkers," officer said.

Maintaining that all troops were saved from the gushing waters in camps and formations, the officer said, "Only three causalities took place -- two in boat capsize in Pulwama in Kashmir and one in landslide in Poonch. There bodies have been recovered." However, two minor ammunition dumps were affected, he said, adding small stores and other ammunition have suffered losses.

The army is performing a dual role -- one to reach out to the flood-hit people and the other saving its installations and men and guard the LoC with higher degree of vigilance. "We performed both the roles excellently. We rescued 2.30 lakh flood-hit people, provided them relief, medicare facilities and shelter and also saved our men and ensured high degree of vigilance along the border", the officer said.

"We did not lower our guard on the borders where we killed 10 militants in encounters during infiltration bids," he said.

The Kashmir army's headquarter at Chinar Badamibagh was totally inundated and nearly 2000 troops were rescued by the Indian Air Force from the facility. In Anantang town of South Kashmir, the brigade headquarters at Khanabal was partially submerged and troops evacuated from there.

Over 40 km of the three-tier border fencing and flood-lighting have also been damaged by the floods. With the army expressing apprehension that militants might take advantage of the situation and infiltrate, work is going on round-the-clock to plug in the gaps on the fencing.

Jammu and Kashmir has 734 km of LoC running through Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh regions from Kargil to Malu (Akhnoor) in Jammu district, while it has 190 km of International Border from Malu to Punjab belt running through Jammu, Samba and Kathua districts.

Anti-infiltration obstacle system has been deployed along Indo-Pak border in Jammu and Kashmir.

Army Engineers with their men and machines are working round-the-clock to complete the task in the shortest possible time and they have been able to plug the critical gaps in AIOS.

Image: Army men repair fence along the border damaged by floods in Jammu and Kashmir. Photograph: PTI