Kashmiri trainee in intercepted phone call to family – Defence News of India

SOURCE: TIMES NOW

The novel coronavirus that has gripped the entire world with infection has also hit the terrorist training camps in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, the Jammu and Kashmir Police said, citing an intercepted phone call made by a trainee from his PoK camp to his family in Kashmir.

J&K Director General of Police Dilbag Singh said that Kashmiris taking training in those camps could die of COVID-19 as “nobody bothers about them”. “There are reports that somebody from a training camp in Pakistan, where he is being trained, made a call to his family members here (Kashmir), telling them that some of the trainees from Kashmir have been infected by the coronavirus. He was telling them that some of them would die of the coronavirus in the training camps and nobody bothers about them,” the DGP was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.

The senior police official further said that there is possibility of infiltration attempts by the terrorists due to the coronavirus outbreak in the training camps.

Several intelligence agencies have been claiming that Pakistan is pushing terrorists infected with COVID-19 into Kashmir.
“They are infected with coronavirus and if they come to this side (Kashmir), they will pass on the infection to other cadres. This is a very serious concern,” he said.

At least 20 terror camps and 20 launch pads with at least 50 terrorists in each have been reactivated by Pakistan along the Line of Control. The country has also ramped up its efforts since October last year to ensure infiltration of as many terrorists as possible into Jammu and Kashmir.

The camps and launch pads were reactivated following February 19 Pulwama terror attack and the subsequent air strike targeting terror camps in Balakot by the Indian Air Force.

The DGP said 250 to 325 terrorists were planning to cross over to Jammu and Kashmir while 240 terrorists are already operating in hinterlands.