In new J&K strategy, infiltrators plan kidnaps

In an important input forwarded to the Centre, intelligence agencies have warned that the Pakistan Army will further intensify infiltration attempts along the LoC and step up militancy in the Kashmir Valley in the runup to the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. According to a classified document circulated among key ministries and security agencies, there “is a growing feeling in the Pakistan Army and the ISI that with Parliament elections barely six to seven months away, India is entering a phase of political uncertainty”. The intelligence report has linked the recent terror attacks in the Valley and the infiltration attempts to this new strategy of the Pak Army and the ISI. Highly-placed government sources also confirmed that the intelligence report has stated that the infiltrators, numbering around 40, are a mix of militants as well as soldiers of the Pak Army’s special forces. “The fact that the militants are heavily armed and have supplies, in terms of ration and fuel, to last them for about two months goes on to prove that they sneaked across the LoC with a lot of planning”, the report adds. As part of a new strategy, the report says, this group of militants was planning to kidnap school teachers and young students and then negotiate with Indian security forces.