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Israeli
Ground Sensors Fail in India
By
IOL South Asia Correspondent
NEW
DELHI, February 20 (IslamOnline.net) - The Israel-made thermal imagers
deployed with much fanfare last year along the Line of Control (LoC)
and in frontier districts of Jammu and Kashmir to check infiltration
from across the border have come a cropper, reported the Indian
newspaper The Statesman Wednesday, February 19.
Only
last October India had bought 1022 units of these sensors at the cost
of nearly U.S. $ 42,000 each.
Israelis
claimed these sensors were so sensitive that they could track body
emissions and differentiate between human beings and animals.
These
electronic sensors, reportedly with a range of up to five kilometers,
were installed along the 440-km LoC and in frontier districts of
Kashmir which witness infiltration and frequent exchange of shelling
with Pakistan, like Poonch, Rajouri, Nowshera, RS Pura, Akhnoor, Uri,
Kupwara, Kargil and Drass.
According
to senior officials of the Indian border security force (BSF), these
sensors could not work properly because of the geographical conditions
in Jammu and Kashmir which are different from the desert-like
condition in Palestine.
The
apparatus were best suited for Israel while the border areas in Jammu
and Kashmir, with mountains and forests, were totally different, army
officials said.
Taking
into consideration the failure of these surveillance gadgets, army
officials have urged the central government to replace them with more
efficient ones in order to check infiltration.
Now
the BSF, which is entrusted with guarding the 210-km long
International Border, has resumed to use Hand Held Thermal Images
(HHTI).
Under
the current Indian government led by Hindu nationalists, India has
consolidated its relations with Zionist Israel, with Tel Aviv poised
to take on Russia as New Delhi’s main arms supplier.
In
the past few months, India concluded many arms deals with Russia,
Israel and other countries.
It
imported Israel man-portable radars capable of detecting human targets
10 kms away, 600 Elbit thermal-imaging systems to equip the Indian
army’s T-72 main battle tanks and 300 Russian BMP-II armored
personnel carriers.
Last
October, an Indian delegation headed by Defense Secretary Subir Dutta
visited Israel for a week to pursue a multi-million dollar deal for
acquisition of the Falcon airborne radars.
New
Delhi also purchased long-range “Aerostat Programmable Radars”
which basically included sensors mounted on blimp-like large balloons
tethered to the ground with long cables and AWACS (Airborne Warning
and Control Systems) from Tel Aviv.
Apart
from these equipment, New Delhi also acquired high quality weapons
including Tavor-21 5.56 mm assault rifles, Galil 7.62 mm super sniper
rifles, 5.56 mm ammunition, night vision sights, laser range finders
worth U.S. $ 20 million from Israel.
Having
very close ties with Israel, India seems to be much more interested in
arming itself to the teeth than mending fences with its neighbors by
giving diplomacy a chance and shedding bellicosity and jingoism.
According
to analysts, spending too much on defense will cause a nasty dent in
the country’s feeble economy.
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