Army is seeking to rope in locals for boosting intelligence in border areas of Jammu and Kashmir against the backdrop of a number of attacks carried out by terrorists after infiltrating from Pakistan.
This comes weeks after locals in Udhampur caught alive a Pakistani terrorist who was on the run after carrying out a strike, along with an associate, on a BSF bus.
To seek active involvement of the locals, a conference was held on Tuesday with an aim of ensuring coordination between the military and civilians for facilitating timely exchange of information with respect to any suspicious movement in and around the villages along the border villages in Jammu region.
The conference held in Samba, bordering Pakistan, was attended by 47 ex-servicemen and sarpanches of several villages, a Defence Ministry spokesman said here.
“Such initiatives by the Army will go a long way in winning the hearts and minds of people of the area and further bonding between the Army and locals,” he said.