Ladakh on high alert; Residents asked to vacate border villages

Amid escalating Indo-Pak tension after the Army’s surgical strikes on terrorist camps in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), Ladakh, which shares vast boundaries with China and Pakistan, has been put on a high alert, following apprehension of “possible aggression” from the other side of the border.
While the administration has sounded the alert for all habitations along the Line of Control (LoC), it has kept the situation along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), an unmarked boundary between China and India, on a “close watch.”
The Ladakh region has 225-km LoC, 955-km LAC that includes some portion of international border and 122-km Actual Ground Position Line with China which has friendly relations with Pakistan.
“We have sounded a high alert for all villages along the LoC in Leh district. Though the number of such inhabitations (along the LoC in Leh district) is small, we have maintained a close vigil on developing situation. For any kind of cross-border hostility or firing, we have kept our contingency plan ready but it has not been activated so far. We don’t want to create an unnecessary panic among the people. This is the only reason that no evacuation so far has been ordered in the district,” said Prasanna Ramaswamy G, Deputy Commissioner, Leh.
Ramaswamy said the situation was, however, peaceful along the LAC and there was no report of any unusual activity from the other side. “We have directed all senior district officers to remain alert and keep a tight vigil on any kind of unusual border activity,” he added.
Similarly, the border villages, close to the LoC, in Kargil district, have also been put on the high alert with the administration chalking out a strategy to shift the people to safer places in case of any border skirmish.
“A high alert has been sounded in Kargil. The sarpanches and numberdars have been asked to remain in constant contact with the administration and inform it immediately if they find anything unusual along the LoC. The administration has devised a comprehensive strategy to deal with any emergent situation,” a senior officer told Kashmir Post over phone from Kargil.

Even as ceasefire violation was reported only in the Akhnoor sector of Jammu district, the whole border belt of Samba and Kathua district wore a deserted look as the authorities have persuaded border inhabitants to move to safer places to avoid any human loss.
The authorities have reasons to advise people living within 5-km radius of the border to shift to safer places, because Pakistan, on the other side, has already vacated all its villages situated near the international border (IB).
Samkal is a Pakistan village, situated just opposite Londi village on the order side of the IB. “Every Friday we used to observe hectic activities in the local mosque of Samkal village. Aazan from the mosque was earlier audible here, but today there is no activity, which substantiates that the Pakistani authorities have vacated all the villages situated on the IB,” said Puran Chand, sarpanch of the local panchayat comprising four border villages. The sarpanch said Amar Chak and Sukh Chak villages across the IB were already got vacated by the Pakistani authorities.
Through naked eyes one can easily see Samkal village of Pakistan from Londi village, but there is no activity on other side of the border which is an indication that Pakistani authorities have already vacated their areas.
After the Army conducted surgical strikes across the Line of Control (LoC) on the intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday, the authorities had asked border residents to move to safer places following tension. “Whole population of the border belt has shifted to safer places on Thursday evening but this morning youth returned to their native place to feed cattle and to look after crops,” Ravinder Sharma, a resident of Manyari village of Hiranagar, told Kashmir Post, adding, “children and aged persons have already been shifted to safer places”.
Putting their lives at stake, border youth seem to be not ready to leave their homes and hearths at this point of time. “Agriculture is the only source of livelihood for us. Harvesting season is approach, so we have no other option but to stay here to look after our crops and feed our cattle,” Suram Singh of Londi village said, adding, “if we shifted to safer places, our crops will be destroyed”.
The authorities on the other hand have persuading people to move to safer places for the time being. “As a precaution we have asked people to shift to the nearby safer places. We know that the harvesting season is going to start but our priority is to save human lives,” Deputy Commissioner, Samba, Sheetal Nanda said. She said due to their persuasion border residents had moved to the houses of their relatives.
Deputy Commissioner, Kathua, Ramesh Kumar said 10 camps had already been established to accommodate border residents. “We have already deputed naib tehsildars and other officers to convince the border residents not to live in their houses during night,” he said.
Meanwhile, violating the ceasefire, Pakistani troops opened small arm fire along the LoC in Akhnoor district. This is the fifth ceasefire violation in September and the third in the past 36 hours.
Deputy Commissioner, Jammu, Simrandeep Singh posted on the social media that there was small arm firing (from Pakistan on forward posts) along the LoC in the Pallanwala, Chapriyal and Samnam areas of Jammu district during the night. He said the firing started at 0030 hours and ended at 0130 hours. There was no loss of life or injury to anyone in the firing, he said.
On Thursday, Pakistani troops had resorted to firing in the Balnoie area of the Mendhar sector, but there was no casualty. On September 28, the Pakistan army had violated the ceasefire by opening fire on the Indian Army posts along the LoC in the Sabzian area of the Poonch sector.