Another infiltration bid foiled
13 militants killed in 96 hours by Army on LoC
While foiling a fourth infiltration bid in row, the Army on Saturday killed a militant along the Line of Control (LoC) in Gurez sector of Jammu and Kashmir’s Bandipore district. With this the toll among the infiltrating militants in a series of clashes with the Army during past four days has risen to 13 whereas one soldier was also killed and two others were injured.
Defence spokesman Colonel Rajesh Kalia said, “One terrorist was killed by own troops in Gurez sector today. The weapon is his use has been seized. The operation is in progress.”
In another incident, one civilian was injured when militants targeted two ITBP vehicles along the Srinagar-Jammu highway. The assailants missed the target and hit a car being driven by a civilian.
The Army said that the fire fight began when the troops guarding the de facto border observed movement of militants trying to sneak into the 2,580 m high Gurez valley, about 86 km from district headquarters Bandipore and 123 km north of Srinagar, from across and challenged them.
Earlier on Friday, the Army had claimed foiling an infiltration bid in Gwalta area of Uri sector after killing five militants. In the same area, two soldiers of 4 J&K Light Infantry were injured when the militants opened fire at a patrolling party on Thursday.
The Army said that “multiple attempts” have been made by militants to sneak into Jammu and Kashmir from PoK through various sectors of the LoC, including Macheal, Nowgam, Uri and Gurez in Kupwara, Baramulla and Bandipore districts, during the past week. All these attempts were, however, foiled by “alert” troops.
The Army has alleged that the infiltrating militants were helped by the Pakistani troops by providing them active support, including heavy calibre artillery covering fire. Islamabad has yet to react to it but has denied such charges in the past.
Meanwhile, the J&K police on Saturday said that one civilian identified as Aarif Ahmed Dar was injured when militants targeted two Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) vehicles with gunfire at Vesu along the Srinagar-Jammu highway at 5 am. The assailants, however, missed the intended target and instead the car being driven by the civilian behind the ITBP vehicles was hit in the gunfire.