Fayaz Bukhari
SRINAGAR, Aug 18: Army today foiled a major infiltration bid by militants in Keran sector on the Line of Control (LoC) in the North Kashmir district of Kupwara.
An Army officer said that troops along the LoC near Bimla Post in Keran sector observed movement of a group of 7-8 militants, who were trying to infiltrate into Kashmir.
“We challenged them and they opened fire. Our troops fired at them and one of them was injured. Our troops saw him being dragged by his colleagues towards the other side of the LoC”, the Army officer added.
A Defence spokesman said here that based on specific intelligence on likelihood of infiltration from Keran sector, the alert troops of the Frontline Vajr Division of North Kashmir, detected movement of a group of militants around 250 meters ahead of the fence, 1.5 kilometers on own side of LoC.
“On being challenged the terrorists opened indiscriminate fire, which was retaliated heavily by own forces. The exchange of fire continued till early morning. Presently the search operations are on in the area”, the spokesman added.
The defence spokesman said: “This is the second infiltration attempt in past one week from the same area by the terrorists in which two terrorists were eliminated which is indicative of the desperation of various terrorists tanzeems to infiltrate in the Valley.”
In the meantime, 6 Rashtriya Rifles, 21 RR of Army and SOG Handwara launched a massive search operation early today in the Mooldari forests in Handwara area of North Kashmir’s Kupwara district after two militants were spotted in the forests.
Sources said that they are said to part of the group of Lashkar-e-Toiba militants who were killed early this month in Mooldari and Hafrooda forests of Handwara.
On August 3, Army killed their commander, Abdullah, in the Mooldari forests of Handwara in the frontier district of Kupwara.
It may be mentioned here that the group that was spotted on July 29 by the security forces and 5 members of the group were killed on August 1 while 3 Army personnel were also injured in the operation.
Sources said that five militants of the group had escaped from Hafrooda forests early this month after Army killed 5 of them. One of the five escaped was later killed in Mooldari forests and now two of the rest four were spotted last evening in the forests.
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