Indo-Pak troops trade shelling
Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR Dec 21: Two Army officers were killed in sniping by Pakistani troops along the Line of Control in North Kashmir’s Kupwara district this afternoon.
A senior Army officer said that Pakistani troops in violation of ceasefire opened the sniper fire upon the Army’s 2/8 GR posts in Peer Baba Grahat Post along the LoC in Jumgund area of Kupwara district.
Two Army officers suffered serious injuries in the attack and were immediately evacuated to military hospital Drugmulla where one of them, Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO) Subedar Gamar Thapa, 42, succumbed to injuries.
The other injured, Junior Commissioned Officer Subedar Raman Thapa was later referred to Army’s 92 base hospital Badamibagh Srinagar for advanced treatment. However, he succumbed to injuries in the hospital.
A senior police officer said that Army deployed along the LoC responded to the Pakistani fire, triggering the cross-border shelling in the area which was intermittently going on till this evening.
In the meantime, police today said Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) militant Zubair Shabir Bhat, who was arrested in Ganderbal district yesterday had come to Kangan with the intention to loot weapons from the security forces. “We managed to catch him and recovered a grenade from his possession”, said SSP Ganderbal, Khalid Ahmed Poshwal.
“We have verified his category, we have also identified other local links and will take action against them also and will further investigate the matter. FIR has been registered against him in the Kangan Police Station which is still under investigation”, he said.
“On getting the first hand information from the Srinagar Police about his movement in the area, we further looked into it while the militant was riding on scooty towards Kangan area of Ganderbal. We immediately informed the CRPF and cordoned off the area leading to the arrest of the militant”, the SSP said.
He said Bhat was a categorized militant from LeT and there are 4 cases registered against him already. “Earlier he was said to be a motorcycle thief and later turned into a stone pelter who further became radicalised in jail and joined militancy”, he said.
The SSP said that LeT commander Naveed Jatt was responsible for motivating Zubair and planned to activate him for the looting of weapons from the guards in South Kashmir.
Meanwhile, police today arrested a person along with a grenade from Pattan area of North Kashmir’s Baramulla district.
Special Operation Group (SOG) of police during a naka at Haritrath, Pattan arrested one Zahoor Ahmad Khan son of Abdul Rashid Khan of Soibugh, Budgam.
Police said one grenade and 49 rounds of AK-47 were recovered from his car (JK18-1299 Alto 800). He is being questioned with regard to the recovery.
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