Certainly, more ex-servicemen are coming in. Maybe even some serving army personnel. This is evident from interrogation reports and the communications we are getting on wireless sets, all of which show a higher degree of professionalism.

Thirdly, they have got people who are somewhat free from Afghanistan. We know Taliban was just a front organisation and more than half of them were regular Pakistani army people. Many have been freed from Afghanistan and may have landed in Kashmir.

Normally, at this time of the year, a large number of militants go back. This year very few have gone back and they are holding on to certain areas. For example, they have not left Surankot (Poonj district) in spite of suffering serious setbacks. Similarly, they continue to hold on to certain parts of the Valley and Doda in spite of the approaching winter. Our feeling is they want to get used to the terrain, the language and people and then create majorproblems. What is important is that all these areas have been added to the Valley. It is not that the focus has shifted and the Kashmir valley abandoned.

There has been no pull-out as such. The level of force in the Valley remains the same and if more force has been needed for Poonj, Rajouri or Doda, that additionality has come from outside J&K. There was some withdrawal from some towns and that is still going on. That decision was taken early this year that gradually as towns like Srinagar, Pulwana, Anantnag and Baramulla become more calm, the Army moves on to the border areas and the towns are policed by the J&K Police with the help of the CRPF. Far from reducing strength, we have added 12,000 more men in the J&K Police in the past two years and are gong to add 10,000 more in the next six months.

Let me clear the confusion about the aircraft: they are used for aero modelling but the fact that they were smuggled across the border and modified show what use they would have been put to. Experts have told us that the Japanese engines are very powerful and the starters very sophisticated. The aircraft has a cavity which can take up to 3 kg of explosives, can run to a distance of 3 km and fly at a height of about 1 km. And you can sit about 2 km away and guide it to its target. So definitely it has added a new dimension to VIP security or even providing security in crowded areas.

No, this is the first time we have seen them. Within a day of the recovery, representatives of intelligence agencies from Delhi as well as senior IAF persons visited Jammu. They are going to conduct various tests. But what is clear by now is that the models have come from Pakistan since there are markings from Muzzafrabad. This was also evident from theinterrogation of a local militant who had told us that eight foreigners had come and left these packages behind. He then took us to a forest area and we recovered two, in knocked-down conditions, from a cave. We suspect that there may be at least another two.

We are still in the process of devising an effective counter-attack. Jammers, of course, could be of help.

We have always maintained that they are equipped with very good communication systems. They have the latest available in the West and in the last year or so, we too have upgraded our systems. The BSF and the Army are now talking about getting sophisticated surveillance equipment for the border, using thermal imagery to show infiltration a couple of hundred yards away. Thisshould be in place soon.

Certainly. If we can bring down infiltration, then the costs we are put to today to get hold of these chaps once they have crossed the border will come down. Infiltration is the number one problem in J&K. Unless we bring down infiltration substantially, the problem will be an ongoing one since the terrain is such that you cannot seal the borders like you have done in Punjab and Rajasthan.

They were set up about two years ago in the Poonj-Doda-Rajouri-Anantnag corridor, which they want vacated by indulging in minority killings. This is the corridor we want to protect with a security grid, of which the VDCs are a part. In Doda district alone, we have about 900 VDCs and the number will be going up further. This is also the case in other areas. The VDCs have been very effective and one test is that they are being repeatedly attacked by the militants. There has not been a single casewhere a VDC has been overrun. Of course, there have been some motivated complaints against them.

Now, the Army has trained some VDCs with rudimentary tactics and we are in the process of also giving them some 500-odd wireless sets.