More questions than answers at Keran

He held a press conference in Srinagar, announcing his deed. But is it the end of the fortnight long story or is it a beginning of a long investigation of what is actually happening with the India-Pakistan attrition in Kashmir.<br><br>Major General Bobbie Matthew, the additional director general of public interface, at the South Block headquarters of the Indian Army, thinks that the intelligence collected during, the fortnight long operation, at the site an enigma.<br><br>He says that there are more questions than what can be answered. But the time taken at the operation is alluded to a decision taken by the ground level commanders of not taking too many casualties in these operations. So, the cordon that was thrown around these 30-odd intruders was not encircling but a semi-circle, that ended ahead of the border fencing, behind which were the machine guns and the mortars of the Pakistan Rangers and the army.<br><br>Chhachra, however, made an important point is his press briefing that the operations are now more based on intelligence – human, electronic and technical. That supposedly stopped the intruders at Shala Bhata-Keran sector. It also stopped intrusions five and two kilometres apart from the cordon that was thrown around these 30-odd infiltrators.<br><br>These body counts got mixed up with those from under the cordon. Their arms caches got mixed up as the seizures from the 30-odd who were holed up in a canal that existed.<br><br>But neither Major General Gurmeet Singh of the XV Corps nor his commander of the Northern Army Command, Lt Gen Sanjiv Chhachra, could give an idea how many of the original infiltrators at Keran sector got ‘neutralised’ as the lingo goes.<br><br>Earlier, in the preceding week, Gen Gurmeet Singh of XV Corps had talked about 12-15 bodies in the early days, of the operation. None of those bodies have been found after the area was vacated.<br><br>Lt Gen Chhachra said that there is a possibility that these bodies may have been squirrelled away across the LOC. But why was there such high mobilisation of terrorists – 30 of them – crossing the LOC in a same group? It has never happened before.<br><br>Why is it the Pakistan troops seeking to push in more insurgents through the same area where the troops were on heightened alert?<br><br>Maj Gen Matthews says that we need to wait for the answers.