Army foils infiltration, 3 militants killed

The Army on Wednesday said that it foiled yet another infiltration bid from across the Line of Control ( LoC) after killing three militants in a gun fight.

A defence spokesman here said that the a group of heavily armed militants tried to sneak into Jammu and Kashmir after breaching the LoC fence in Macheal sector of Kupwara district early Wednesday. “Our alert jawans noticed suspicious movement along the LoC in Machael sector and challenged the infiltrators. An exchange of fire took place in which three terrorists were killed”, spokesman Colonel Rajesh Kalia said. He added that the clash was followed by a search operation in the area to ensure no militant has succeeded in sneaking into this sector during any parallel infiltration attempt.

Earlier eight militants were killed in two similar clashes that took place at Shah Nagar Jat Gali ( pass) in Handwara area of Kupwara and neighbouring Tanghdar sector close to the de facto border on May 18 and 26, respectively.

Meanwhile, thousands of mourners on Wednesday attended the funeral of two of the five militants killed by the Army at Badwan in Tanghdar sector on May 26. The Army had said that the five men killed by it were infiltrators and had with the help of locals buried their bodies in a remote area of Kupwara. However, the locals had taken photographs of the bodies which were later placed on social media. On seeing these, two families from southern Pulwama and Kulgam districts came forward to claim that two of the slain youth were their kin who had gone missing a couple of months ago.

On their request, the bodies were exhumed by the police and these turned out to be those of missing youth Mudasir Ahmed Bhat of Parigam, Kulgam and Shiraz Ahmed Sheikh of Lajoora, Pulwama. After exhumation, the bodies were handed to their families on Tuesday.

Soon after their bodies reached Parigam and Lajoora, people in large numbers including women and children came out to receive them. They were later joined by thousands of mourners from various parts of the twin districts to participate in the last rites of the slain youth, the witnesses and the police officials said. “Several rounds of funeral prayers were offered for both of them,” a police official said adding that the situation in the areas is tense “but under control.”