Zero cross border infiltration in J&K in first 6 months of 2023: MHA to Lok Sabha

There has been no incident of cross-border infiltration reported in Jammu and Kashmir.

In the first six months this year, the ministry of home affairs (MHA) informed Parliament on Tuesday as it shared the data on declining infiltration in the union territory.

Responding to a question by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) member of parliament Ranjanben Dhananjay Bhatt, union minister of state for home Nityanand Rai said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha that “The approach adopted by government of India to tackle the cross-border infiltration has ensured a perceptible decline in infiltration.”

According to the data shared by him with his reply, there were zero incidents of cross-border infiltration in J&K till June 30. The data suggests that the cross-border infiltration has declined drastically since 2019, when the article 370, that somewhat gave special status to J&K, was abolished and it was made a union territory.

While there were 141 incidents of cross border infiltration in J&K in 2019, 51 such infiltrations were reported in 2020, 34 in 2021 and just 14 last year, according to Rai’s reply in Lok Sabha.

The minister further said that the government of India has adopted a well-coordinated and multi-pronged strategy to tackle the cross-border infiltration. “This includes tactical deployment of forces at International Border (IB)/Line of Control (LoC), use of technology like surveillance cameras, night vision cameras, heat sensing gadgets, etc., multi-tiered deployment along IB/LoC, border fencing, deployment of intelligence personnel to collect advance and target-oriented inputs on infiltration, ambushes and foot-patrolling by army/Border Security Force (BSF), establishment of border police posts for generating local intelligence and taking pro-active action against infiltrators,” he said.