Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government has prepared a plan to expand coverage of its mobile coverage in Jammu and Kashmir that is not only designed to help Pakistan-trained terrorists infiltrating into the valley but also neutralize the impact of a future communication blockade imposed by the government, people familiar with the matter said. The plan, according to a top security official in New Delhi, to tweak existing telecom towers and build new ones has been in the works for about a year. It was initially conceived to strengthen the existing phone network to help terrorists who have infiltrated into Kashmir.
But the Pakistani foreign ministry pushed hard to scale up the exercise to give it the ability to sabotage the communications blockade ordered in Kashmir after last year’s Aug 5 decision to end its special status. It wants Kashmiris to use Pakistani telecom services that cannot be blocked by Indian security forces. Pakistan’s Special Communications Organisation (SCO) – the state-run firm mandated to provide telecom services in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and the Gilgit-Baltistan region – had analyzed signals from 38 sites along the Line of Control and the International Border with India. It has told the army that Pakistan could get a spillover effect via 28 existing phone towers. The GSM antenna would need to be reoriented in 18 locations to achieve this objective though it would reduce the coverage on its side of the LoC. The blueprint also includes setting up the new base transceiver station in Pak-occupied Kashmir as well as the use of wireless local loop phones in Indian territory. “This plan has been accepted and is being implemented,” the senior official said.
Pakistan’s ISI is also pushing for increasing the signal strength of SCO mobile towers in PoK nearest to Indian sites such as in Cham opposite Baramulla, Leepa opposite Sopore, Upper Neelam Valley and Athmuqam opposite Kupwara, and Hillan Meera opposite Srinagar to provide coverage across the LoC.
Post Your Comments