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Farming hit by border mining

By Our Staff Reporter

LONDI (Kathua) JUNE 29. The decrease in India-Pakistan border firing brings no relief to the thousands of migrants along the areas close to the International Border of Jammu region. The mines laid by the Border Security Force and the Army, as part of the defence strategy, on fields more than six months ago near the Line of Control and the International Border has made cultivation impossible.

Thousands of acres of cultivable land in four border districts of Jammu region have been dotted with anti-personnel and anti-tank mines. The area under mines remains a matter of dispute between the Army authorities and the civil administration. Army officers say that the civil administration, in their assessment of the land under mines, have included barren land which are not mined. ``The border de-escalation does not bring us any relief as we would not dare to return to our lands where the mines have been laid'', says Rawal Kumar, an agriculturist from Londi village of Hiranagar sector, a few yards from the international border.

In the past, notwithstanding the routine small arms firing in Hiranagar sector of the Jammu region, almost all villagers were cultivating their lands right up to Zero Line along the 198-km-long international border in Jammu region, from Paharpur on the Jammu-Punjab border to Akhnoor sector.

The troops have laid mines in nearly 250-300 metres area from the Zero Line, which, the villagers say, have rendered thousands of acres of their fertile agricultural land uncultivable.

However, a senior Army officer told The Hindu that the people had misconceptions about the laying of mines, which, in the past, have been used as an effective instrument of defence. ``Mines are laid down under specific instructions and after detailed mapping. We can easily de-mine the area when needed and every mine laid down is accounted for''.

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