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Young women are likely to be employed as overground workers by the Pakistan's ISI to take part in intelligence activities in India, according to intelligence reports available with India.
Minister of State for Home Ch Vidyasagar Rao told the Lok Sabha in a written reply that the Cetree had alerted the Jammu and Kashmir Government and the security forces in this regard. Reports indicated that women had been recruited and were being trained by the ISI.
The minister admitted that the killing of civilians and security personnel during the unilateral ceasefire from November 28 last year to May 31 last had increased. An analysis of the 185 days of unilateral ceasefire and the same number of days preceding this had shown that the number of violent incidents had increased from 1672 to 2142, while the number of security personnel went up from 223 to 266 and that of civilians rose from 461 to 543.
However, the number of militants killed was 597 as compared to 985 in the period before the ceasefire, thus bringing down the number of total killings from 1669 in the period from May 27 to November 27 last year to 1406 during the ceasefire period.
Defending what he called the calculated step of declaration of non-initiation of combat operations against militants, Mr Rao however, said security forces had launched a counter-terrorism campaign against militants in the hinterland as well as near the line of control and the international border to check infiltration and militancy. At the same time, he said the Government had kept its doors open for talks with all groups representing public opinion in the state.
In another reply, the minister said Mr K C Pant who had been nominated by the Centre for holding a political dialogue with representatives of all walks of life in Jammu and Kashmir had found the response 'very encouraging.
He admitted in reply to another question that the Pakistan troops had attempted to damage iron pickets in a small portion of fencing in three different incidents on the Jammu International Border and resorted to unprovoked firing (appropriately retaliated by the Border Security Force) in May and the BSF had lodged strong protests during the flag meetings.
The minister said there had been no response from Pakistan to make travel between the two countries easier by opening new check-posts and allowing Pak citizens to get visa at the international checkpost when they came by road route.
There is no proposal to raise the issue of the killing of the BSF by Bangladesh Rifles at the United Nations since the Government of that country had promised a full inquiry, Minister of State for Home I D Swami said in a written reply, admitting that no report had been received so far from that country. He said a total of 45 BSF jawans had been killed on the Indo-Bangladesh border between July 13, 1998 and July 12 this year.
In reply to another question, he said the number of paramilitary forces killed all over the country in encounters/enemy action in the last three years was 525 - 139 in 1998, 191 in 1999, 195 in 2000.
Meanwhile, he said India and Nepal had decided to step up the two-way flow of information on terrorist and criminal activities and minimise cross-border terrorism. The decisions were taken at the fourth India-Nepal joint working group on border management held here on June 28 and 29.
In a separate reply, Mr Rao asserted
that there were no Bangladeshi or nepalese refugees in India, and steps
were taken to flush out illegal immigrants whenever information was made
available about the same. (UNI)
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