50km of LoC fencing damaged in floods

UDHAMPUR (J&K): Over 50km of the three-tier border fencing and flood-lighting have been damaged by the recent floods along the LoC and IB in J&K and security forces are racing against time to repair it to prevent cross-border infiltration ahead of winters.
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.
"As many as 20 to 25 kms of border fencing has been damaged in various patches along the Line of Control in Kashmir and Jammu regions during floods", a senior Army officer told PTI.
Similarly, a BSF officer put the damage caused to fencing along the IB in Jammu frontier to 14 to 15 km along with flood-lighting.
J&K has 734 Kms of LoC running through Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh regions from Kargil to Malu (Akhnoor) in Jammu district, while it has 190 Kms of International Border from Malu to Punjab belt running through Jammu, Samba and Kathua districts.
Anti-infiltration obstacle system (AIOS) has been deployed along 740 Kms along Indo-Pak border in J&K.
Of these, 550km of LoC has been fenced with flood-lighting along with 190km of fenced IB.
As security forces battle floods to reach out to people for rescue and relief, the BSF and the Army are also racing against time to repair the damaged AIOS along LoC and IB to prevent cross-border infiltration from Pakistan ahead of winters.
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.
"We are racing against time to repair and reconstruct the damage fencing. The fencing has been damaged in patches. Where ever it was critical we put it up within two to three days", the officer said.
"The balance work is going on a war-footing", the officer said.