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SRINAGAR: “Considerably” fewer Islamic rebels are entering Indian Kashmir because India has put more troops and better technology on the disputed border with Pakistan, a top army official claimed here on Sunday.

“Infiltration has come down considerably with the strengthening of deployment along the Line of Control and use of the latest survelliance gadgets,” said Lieutenant General Hari Prasad, who heads the Indian army’s Northern Command which includes Indian Occupied Kashmir.

Lt Gen Prasad claimed Indian troops in the past six months made 93 intercepts on the de facto border killing 300 militants. He did not give comparative figures for other time periods.

Between 2,500 to 3,000 militants are active inside Indian (Held) Kashmir of whom nearly two-thirds are foreigners, Prasad said Sunday. Prasad said India had fenced on 170 kilometres of the 760-kilometre Line of Control and would seal all of it by October 2004.

Other army officials have said India was detecting more 'militants' through Israeli-made thermal imagers which have a range of up to four kilometres (two and a half miles).

At least 90,000 and 100,000 civilians have been martyred in Held Kashmir uprising since 1989 by the Indian occupied forces. However, India deliberately put the death toll as 40,000.

Prasad said the army took notice of any reports of rights violations. “Recently we have sentenced two soldiers for 10 years imprisonment for raping a girl,” he said without giving further details.