NEW DELHI: Infiltration through J&K's Kanachak area is just not an isolated incident on the international border. It is part of a well orchestrated plan of Pakistan-based terrorists to "sneak in through the area where they are supposed to do a quick action" — particularly in the Jammu region, far away from their usual area of operation in the Valley.

In May, terrorists sneaked into Samba before attacking civilians in a nearby area. Security agencies were caught off guard as they were focusing on the usual route of infiltration along LoC.

With the Army managing to thwart a majority of the infiltration bids along the Line of Control (LoC) this summer, the Pakistani "handlers" of militant outfits are trying to push in terrorists through the International Border (IB) now.

That is the assessment of the security establishment here in the wake of the spurt in infiltration bids along the IB in recent days, with the latest one being the successful attempt by some militants to cross-over in the Kanachak area in the early hours of Tuesday.

As per the latest assessment, there are 750-800 terrorists already active in J&K. Hundreds more are positioned in "launch pads" along the LoC and IB to cross over into J&K, with the aim being to take advantage of the ongoing turmoil in the state as well as unleash havoc in the run-up to the assembly polls.

As Army chief, General Deepak Kapoor, told TOI last week, there are as many as 40 terrorist-training camps still operating across the border, with 20 in Pakistan, 18 in PoK and two in the Northern Areas of Gilgit-Baltistan.

Minister of state for defence, M M Pallam Raju, on his part, on Wednesday said, "We expected that there will be attempts to disrupt the election process and infiltration is part of that gameplan. Forces that are behind the disruption want to show that they exist. We are making all efforts to see that they do not get a upper hand...they will be neutralized."

Anticipating the infiltration spike, the Army had laid a strong "three-tier counter-infiltration grid" along LoC as soon as snow in the mountain passes began melting in March-April. This put paid to plans by outfits like Lashkar-e-Taiba, Hizbul Mujahideen, Jaish-e-Mohammed and al Badr to send militants across the 778-km LoC, with "successful infiltration" till July this year being just about 35% of last year's count.

"Consequently, while infiltration bids along the LoC continue, militant outfits seem to be also turning their attention to the the 198-km-long IB in J&K now. Overall, we have recorded around 150 infiltration bids already this year," said a senior Army officer.

There is another source of worry. Pakistani Army is increasingly resorting to cross-border firing this year, breaking the November 2003 ceasefire over 30 times already since January.

"Many of the ceasefire violations have been accompanied by infiltration bids, confirming the suspicion that Pakistan Army is again providing covering fire to infiltrators," he said.