Kathua (J-K), Mar 26 : Farmers who had lost their agricultural land to border fencing in Kashmir are happy with realignment of fencing border.

Farmers of Kathua district have thanked government for fencing re-alignment.

"Earlier, almost half of our land was wasted due to fencing near border areas... Now we are feeling happy after re-alignment of fencing... the Government has done a good job for us," said Maggar Singh, a farmer.

Now nearly 1100 acres of land is available for cultivation.

"There is a lot of development in the work of fencing re-alignment, from Kathua to Asapura, we can re-claim around 1100 acres of land after re-alignment," said A K Sharma, Deputy Inspector General Of Border Security Force (BSF), Jammu.

"Over 50 percent of the re-alignment work has been completed and work is going on for the remaining portion," he added.

The BSF had started fencing work almost a decade ago after reporting heavy infiltration of armed militants from Pakistan.

Due to regular exchange of fire between the troops of the two nations, it was not possible for the BSF to fence the Line of Control (LoC) that divides Kashmir.

Therefore, fencing was raised one to three kilometers behind LoC, which took a major portion of cultivated land from farmers.

Indian army decided to shift the fencing at the LoC with the reduction in cross-border firing after India and Pakistan began peace talks, commonly known as composite dialogues in 2004.

Kashmir is the bone of contention between India and Pakistan, who have fought two of their three wars over the region, began a slow-moving peace process in 2004. (ANI)