'Taliban may be diverted to Kashmir'

By Shujaat Bukhari

SRINAGAR, NOV. 19. As the Taliban faces a near-complete ouster from Afghanistan, the Army apprehends the militia's diversion to Kashmir, the Commander of the Srinagar-based 15 Corps, Lt. Gen. J. R. Mukherjee, has said. He, however, denied that troop deployment had been increased in any part of the Valley.

``Pakistan cannot afford to let them (Taliban) stay. So a fair proportion will definitely try and be pumped into Kashmir.''

Anticipating that the Taliban might be pushed out of Pakistan, the Army had stepped up its efforts to stop the guerrillas from crossing the Line of Control, the commander told a news agency on Sunday.

There was no let-up in Pakistan's promotion of militancy in Kashmir, Lt. Gen. Mukherjee said. ``The militants were a little bewildered (for some time) as they could not get clear orders from across (the border). After that, it is quite apparent that Kashmir will carry on as before.''

A few hours before the militants of the Pakistan-based outfit, Lashkar-e-Taiba, struck on the Srinagar-Jammu highway, killing 13 soldiers on Sunday, Lt. Gen. Mukherjee had predicted that they would try to step up their activities, particularly suicide attacks. ``They desperately need to see some success'' he had said in an interview.

Denying that the number of troops had been increased to stop the infiltration of militants, Lt. Gen. Mukherjee said only two divisions had been deployed on the LoC and two elsewhere for counter-insurgency operations. ``We have adopted a very strong counter-infiltration posture with the same number of divisions we had, and are sure we will be able to stop a flood from coming in,'' he said.

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