Jammu, March 24 (IANS) Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah Tuesday asked security forces on the frontiers with Pakistan to be on alert against infiltration attempts by militants from across the border.
The long drawn shootout between militants and security forces in north Kashmir Kupwara district 'indicates that efforts (by militants) to infiltrate will continue and our efforts to thwart that must also continue', Abdullah told reporters here.
The Kupwara gunfight which erupted last Thursday and was continuing has claimed at least 19 lives, including 11 militants and eight army troopers.
Abdullah said militants were withdrawn from terror camps in Pakistan briefly after the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, 'but they have started re-grouping now'.
The chief minister said there was no question of thinning out the presence of troops along the Line of Control - the defacto border that divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan - as 'we need to step up alert in view of reports of militants trying to infiltrate into the Indian side'.
He said tactical relocation of troops was being done from time to time, 'but no withdrawal has been done and nothing has been done to weaken guard against militants'.
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