NEW DELHI: The Indian forces are now engaged in a massive degrading exercise to break the combat power of the enemy by targetting intrusions and their support from across the Line of Control (LoC) even while continuing evictions In Batalik and Dras sectors on one hand and air-strafing the Mashkoh valley on the other hand.

Combing operations on the occupied Indian mountains have finally helped India firm up its view that the intruders are mostly from the Pakistan Army’s 3, 4 and 6 Northern Light Infantry batallions which have headquarters just across the LoC at Gultari, besides some sub-units of Special Service Group.

This clear perception of the enemy with whom the Indian Forces have to battle has helped the authorities to re-work the whole operation to effectively eliminate them without any more high casualties on the Indian side.

NO PHYSICAL CROSSING OF LoC: It was also clarified once again that the Indian forces are not crossing the LoC to take on the enemy helping the intruders but targetting them using artillery and mortar from the Indian side of LoC and that there were no plans to send the Indian aircraft across the LoC to bomb the enemy.

The Indian attacks are only on the military targets and not on the civilians as they are doing all these days, the Military spokesman said while pointing out that the Indian forces would "not physically cross the LoC" and in fact the IAF operations were scaled down since the intruders were withdrawing and were now too close to the LoC.

The Pakistan forces, however, continued to target innocent civilians not only in Kargil sector but also in half a dozen other sectors in Jammu and Kashmir with unprovoked mortar firing at kanzalwan, Keran, Punch, Krishna Ghati and Bhimber Galli and Naushera.

Pakistan has the advantage of various road links in Skardu to transport the arms very close to LoC and the Indian forces now have a clear picture of how they are transported further on mules and then by the porters. As it requires a battery of porters to lift the load up to the intruders, the Indian troops are firing at all such possible routes from which hey can go up.

The exercise is on to cut off the supply routes one by one, but the terrain is such that the spokesman admitted that by the time one route is blocked, the enemy may have found out other route. However, the supplies have reduced to just a trickle and as such the intruders forced to fire back at the advancing troops would soon be without any combat power, except to engage in a hand-to-hand fight.

DENIALS AND DENIALS: It was a day of series of denials of Media scoops at the Defence Ministry’s daily Press briefing on Tuesday -- no high alert on all borders, no recovery of women bodies of enemy side and no three-storyed bunker built by the intruders. "Absolutely incorrect and a figment of imagination," the Military spokesman affirmed.

The movement of the enemy forces and amassing of the fighter aircraft on the borders have compelled "precautionary postures" by the Indian Army, but there was no "high alert" to fear any kind of an imminent war, the spokesman clarified while declining to divulge if additional enforcements have been rushed to the borders of Gujarat and Rajasthan touching Pakistan.

The spokesman also denied that Pakistan was able to encroach upon new Indian hights. "No question of anybody occupying new heights. We have contained the area, isolated the intruders-occupied mountaints, interdicted them and eviction is in full swing," Col. Bikram Singh affirmed.

BJP DENIAL TOO: Even the ruling Bhartiya Janata Party was in a denial mode as its spokesman M Venkiah Naidu said his party chief Kushabhau Thakre had been "misquoted" as he never talked about postponement of the Lok Sabha elections in the event of a war with Pakistan. Where is the war, Naidu asked.

All the same, the Congress reacted strongly to Thakre revealing the BJP’s hidden agenda on the same day when the Prime Minister says the elections would be on schedule. AICC General Secretary Pranab Mukherjee wanted that even declaration of Emergency under Article 352 cannot postpone the elections. "Till today there is no war, diplomatic relations are continuing and an Emergency if clamped would require its ratification by the Rajya Sabha with 2/3^rd majority in a month, Mukherjee said while pointing out that the ruling alliance does not have the strength in the Upper House to succeed in its "sinister design."

Asked how the evictions from the Indian mountain hills now being attempted by the Indian forces would help if the supply lines from across the LoC remain intact, Col Bikram Singh said teeth of the enemy’s intruders lie in their combat power and as such the whole concentration was to break these teeth while picking up the supply lines one by one to prevent further reinforcements.

In the last 24 hours, the ground operations were mostly in Batalik and Drass sub-sectors of Kargil and the Indian casualties in these operations were only three—Maj Manoj Talwar of Mahar Regiment and riflemen Bachchan Singh and Jasvir Singh, both from Rajputana rifles. The IAF operations were confined to the Mashkoh valley.

However, on the enemy side there were 23 deaths and injuries to 36 others in Drass sector, north of Tololing and seven deaths in the Batalik sector. The Indian troops had already captured Point 5203 in the Batalik sector on June 10 while they progressed further beyond this position towards the north and northeast and successfully interdicted the enemy supply lines through a maneouvres on the night of 14/15 June in which Major Manoj Talwar was seriously wounded and later succumbed to injuries.

The spokesman also disclosed further recovery of armament and equipment from the areas captured around Tololing, which included one universal machine gun, one AK rifle and several boxes of ammunition and rounds of small arms.

Also recovered was an identity card belonging to Number 2847955 Havaldar Arfroz Gul of Alfa company of the 6 Northern Light Infantry of Pakistan Army. The spokesman did not say if Arfroz was killed or wounded or managed to escape except to point out that he was the resident of Juglot in Gilgit tehsil of the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. END.