"The current US surveillance technology -- whether it be ground sensors, satellite imagery or anything else -- has not been used in mountainous terrain, especially at heights like we have in the Himalayas," said C.U. Bhaskar, deputy director of the New Delhi based Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses.

"So there is a question mark over it."

US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld offered Washington's help in deploying electronic ground sensors in disputed Kashmir when he visited New Delhi Wednesday on a mission aimed at cooling tensions between India and Pakistan.

The issue of insurgency is at the core of the current dangerous military stand-off between the nuclear-armed neighbours, who between them have around one million troops massed on their common frontiers.

The showdown was sparked by an attack on India's parliament complex in December which New Delhi has blamed on two Pakistan-based Islamic militant groups battling Indian rule in Kashmir.

India now wants some form of monitoring mechanism in place to verify recent statements by Pakistan that it has reined in the militants.

However, according to Bhaskar, electronic devices will not be enough.

"Whatever means is employed to check whether Pakistan is making good on its promise of stemming infiltration, it will have to be supplemented by human intelligence on the ground.

"Only then will it be successful," he said.

Indian defence officials have been tight-lipped about the form of sensors the United States wants to install, although Rumsfeld has suggested these would be ground sensors rather than airborne ones.

According to military experts here, ground sensors are highly encrypted electronic gadgets and are therefore sensitive to vibrations, footfalls, breathing and heat.

They would be planted on the Line of Control (LoC) -- the de facto border -- separating Kashmir into Indian and Pakistan controlled regions.

Data gathered by the sensors would be transmitted to a command post monitored by security personnel, who would then act on it.

Other sensors can be linked to satellites which then beam data to reception centres on the ground.

Experts have claimed that for India to use these kinds of sensors it would have to tap into a whole range of satellites to ensure the LoC was monitored around the clock.

V. R Raghavan, a former director general of military operations in the Indian army, said New Delhi would need "tens of thousands of such sensors to cover the entire LoC.

"Even then, given the terrain, which varies from wooded to glacial to mountainous, the sensors will not be able to detect the movement of people effectively," he said.

Y. K. Gera, deputy director of the New Delhi based United Services Institute, a military think-tank, agreed with Raghavan.

"Any sensor covers only the line of sight. The beams they emit cannot bend around the curvatures of the earth and what is behind mountains," Gera said.

"Similarly, their frequency ranges will depend on whether they are planted in the hills or valleys," he added.

Another former army commander, K.S. Kalkat, described sensors as a "passive form of protection, giving Indian troops time to intercept militants after they cross the LoC."

"The requirement is to prevent the rebels from crossing into India. If Pakistan's president (Pervez) Musharraf is sincere when he says he will stem the cross-overs, the Pakistan army should be able to capture the militants even before they approach the LoC," he said.

According to Kalkat, if Pakistan's army wants to help the militants cross over, it can resort to firing artillery shells to provide cover -- as Indian officials claim it is already doing.

All rights reserved. � 2002 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.

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