11 April 2005	Monday	01 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1426

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KAMAN POST (India), April 10: Indian troops are rushing to repair a border fence in Kashmir, badly damaged by the heaviest snowfall in decades, to prevent fresh incursions by separatist guerillas, a senior army officer said. Last year, Indian army engineers fenced off most of the Line of Control, a 742-km military line that divides Kashmir, in what is seen as an ambitious attempt to curb the influx of anti-Indian militants.

But the concertina wire barrier was damaged at several places after the heaviest snowfall in four decades in February, an Indian army brigadier said.

“In some places the damage is about 50 to 60 per cent, in others it is 25 or 30 per cent,” the brigadier told Reuters at India’s last military post on the frontier in Kashmir.

“In some places, the fence is under 20 or 25 feet of snow. The terrorists can just walk over the fence, there is so much snow,” he said. “In other places it is fractured with huge gaps or many portions have just been swept away.”—Reuters