Deccan Chronicle

ARMY HITS UPON ‘HUGE’ ARMS CACHE ALONG LoC

- YUSUF JAMEEL | DC

The Army on Tuesday claimed that its troops defending the Line of Control (LoC) hit upon ‘a huge cache of arms and ammunition’ left behind by a group of infiltrato­rs in secreted locations in Rampur sector of Uri belt in northweste­rn Baramulla district.

It said that, after being challenged by alert troops, the infiltrato­rs moved back into Pakistan-occupiedJa­mmu and Kashmir.

Separately, the Border Security Force (BSF) and J&K police said that they during a joint operation carried out in Shiendara Top and Khanater Top villages in the hills of Poonch district of Jammu region, recovered two pistols with four magazines and 150 rounds of live ammunition, five AK-47 magazines and 250 bullets, two wireless sets, four grenades and a Binocular from a militant hideout.

Defence spokesman, Colonel Rajesh Kalia, said here that the Army troops detected movement of suspicious persons in a forward area in Rampur sector on August 30. “The movement was from a village close to the LoC and the suspects crossed into Indian territory. Due to terrain of thick foliage and weather conditions an alert of likely infiltrati­on attempt was sounded,” he said.

He added, “The surveillan­ce grid was beefed up all across the area and along the likely infiltrati­on routes and ambushes were sited to thwart any attempt of infiltrati­on. Surv-eillance continued throughout the night”.

The spokesman said that at first light on Monday, the troops carried a search of the area which continued for seven hours and that it was when two “concealed locations” in two “hideouts” were discovered.

“From these hideouts five AK series rifles along with six magazines and two sealed boxes of 1,254 rounds of AK ammunition, six pistols with nine magazines and six rounds, 21 grenades, 2 UBGL grenades and 2 Kenwood radio sets with one antenna were recovered,” he said.

The Army said that the area has villages ahead of the anti-infiltrati­on fence and claimed that the suspected modus operandi is to drop war like stores in caches near the LoC.

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