October 7, 2002	Monday	Rajab 29, 1423

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NEW DELHI, Oct 6: India is to use imported radars from Israel along its disputed border with Pakistan in Kashmir to detect cross-border movement, an official said on Sunday.

A defence ministry source said the deal was signed recently, while the Press Trust of India said India had already received the first of the 1,022 portable radars, which can detect human movement up to 10 kilometres away.

India has already installed some of these radars along the Line of Control, the report added.

The decision to purchase the radars in bulk was taken after the Indian army reported considerable success in checking infiltration of rebels into occupied Kashmir following a trial of the sensors.

PTI quoting unidentified defence officials said India had signed the deal, worth about $70 million, with Israel’s EL-OP company for short-range radars and long-range observance and reconnaissance systems, after bids by French electronics giant Thales and Sagem were rejected.

However, officials said the negotiations for close-range sensor detectors with the United States were still going on, PTI said.

“We are evaluating the US offer made directly by the Pentagon,” PTI quoted defence ministry officials as saying.

The idea to install sensors to detect cross-border infiltration gathered momentum after a visit by US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to South Asia in June, on a mission aimed at cooling tensions between India and Pakistan.

The portable radars would be used by border patrols, while the 10km range sensors would be installed in built-up defence areas to observe attempts to infiltrate from a distance and chalk out an effective strategy to intercept infiltrators, the PTI report said. PTI said most of the radars would be delivered by the end of this month.—AFP