Pakistan increases deployment across Line of Control in J&K

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India has apprised the international community about the Pakistan Army gradually increasing troop deployment and enhancing its firepower on the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) since the abrogation of Article 370 on August 5, sources said on Monday.

The Indian Army had carried out a detailed analysis in this regard and shared a report with the government.

The report states that Pakistan has also placed artillery guns across the Line of Control to carry out continuous shelling on the Indian side, violating the ceasefire agreement. "The frequency of skirmishes has increased after the abrogation of Article 370 on August 5," sources said.

"Pakistan has started targeting civilian areas along the Line of Control indulging in heavy artillery firing. There have been increased attempts to push in terrorists from launch pads metres away from the LoC. The launch pads are full of terrorists waiting to infiltrate," the report stated.

According to the report, the Pakistan Army has deployed around 2,000 personnel from its special operations wing - Special Service Group (SSG) on the Line of Control. The country also has a deployment of close to 90,000 troops on the Line of Control against the 1,13,000 Indian Army personnel.

The report also exposes Pakistan's continuous propaganda that Kashmir has been turned into a military garrison with 9 lakh Indian troops.

According to the analysis, the total deployment of the Indian Army and the Central armed police forces in the Valley is around 2,31,000. "This includes the over one lakh additional forces deployed in mainland Kashmir since August 5 for public order and counter-terror operations," said a source.

Contrary to Pakistan's claims of India having to deploy 9 lakh personnel in Kashmir, the Valley has not more than 2,31,000 personnel, who also have to carry out counter-terrorists and counter-infiltration attempts from Pakistan, which leads to their numbers going up, said the report.

Now, Pakistan has pushed in more that 1.3 lakh troops near the Line of Control hardly differentiating it from India. But India's troop figures are still much less than what is being claimed by Pakistan as part of its propaganda and the deployment is well within the mutually agreed numbers by the two countries, it added.

The report stated that so far the Pakistan Army personnel always assumed that deployment across the Line of Control was a peace posting compared to their country's western borders, where they fought battles in Afghanistan.

"But things have changed and now Pakistan Army personnel do not consider peace posting with their Commanders issuing directions of continuous shelling and firing across Line of Control," source added.

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