Mumbai, December 12: The Shiv Sena on Thursday sought to know why the government is ignoring infiltration attempts from Pakistan, even as India is preparing to provide citizenship to religiously persecuted refugees from the neighbouring country. An atmosphere is being created for granting citizenship to refugees, an editorial in party mouthpiece 'Saamana' said, and asked whether the government will open its eyes over the issue of intrusion from Pakistan.

It said the government's claim that the situation in Kashmir after the revocation of Article 370 is fine has proved wrong, as there have been "84 infiltration attempts" from Pakistan and "59 terrorists" entered India since the scrapping of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir in August.

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The Shiv Sena, which backed the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Bill in the Lok Sabha on Monday, staged a walkout ahead of voting on it in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday, citing unsatisfactory response to the queries raised by the party.

The bill, which seeks to provide Indian citizenship to non-Muslim refugees from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, was passed by the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday. The Lok Sabha passed it on Monday. "It is surprising that despite information given by the government in Parliamentabout rising incidents of infiltration bids from across the border, there has been no discussion or debate over the issue," the Sena said.

The government's claims on the situation in Kashmir being fine after the abrogation of Article 370 were all wrong, the Marathi daily said. "Since August, there have been 84 infiltration attempts in which 59 terrorists entered India through various border areas. This shows that the infiltration bids have been successful," it claimed.

"An atmosphere is being built for granting citizenship to refugees, but will the government open its eyes to address this (issue of infiltration)?" the Sena asked. Between 2005 and 2019, the Indian security forces arrested 42 terrorists and foiled bids of 2,253 intruders, the Uddhav Thackeray-led said, adding that in the last 14 years, the security forces killed 1,110 terrorists.

Infiltration was "at its peak" between 2014 and 2019, the Sena stated. It said as per the annual report released by the Ministry of Home Affairs in October this year, Pakistan made 328 infiltration bids in 2018 of which 143 were successful.

In 2018, 257 terrorists were killed and 91 jawans were martyred in encounters with terrorists, the Sena said. In 2017, there were 417 infiltration bids of which 136 were successful, it said quoting the MHA figures. Besides, 119 of the total 371 infiltration attempts by terrorists were successful in 2016, 33 of 121 such bids succeeded in 2015 while 65 of 222 such attempts were successful in 2014, it added.