Why infiltration figures are confusing

J&K Chief Minister Azad clarifies that variance in figures is a result of divergent reporting by agencies.

Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad on Sunday clarified that the confusion over the infiltration figures put differently by the state and defence ministry was a result of divergent reporting by various investigation agencies.

In an informal chat with mediapersons at Poonch, Azad said that Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), Criminal Investigation Department, Information Bureau and the Army's own intelligence agencies were usually different because of their different modus operandi.

"When I quote the infiltration figures, I quote them according to the CID reports. But when the defence minister quotes the statistics on infiltration, he quotes them from RAW, IB or other investigating agencies," he said.

In the past there has been a lot of confusion about the infiltration figures with the J&K chief minister saying that the infiltration was going north and the defence minister saying it was going south.

Azad recalled an incident from the Congress chief ministers' meet in Nainital where he had said that infiltration had gone up and quoted the figures of the last two months. But within a few days, the then defence minister, Pranab Mukerjee, informed that it had gone down.

"The defence minister had quoted the figures of the last one year and compared them with the previous year. Comparing those figures, infiltration had really gone down. But I too was right in saying that in the last two months the infiltration figures had gone up alarmingly," the chief minister said while he was waiting for the chopper to take off from Poonch after it returned midway due to bad weather.

The chopper later took off and Azad along with Defence Minister AK Antony reached Jammu safely.

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