Fayaz Bukhari
SRINAGAR, Aug 9: A solider was killed as Army today foiled a major infiltration bid by militants on the Line of Control (LoC) in Gurez sector in North Kashmir’s Bandipora district.
Brigadier General Staff (BGS) of Srinagar based 15 Corps, Brigadier KJS Dhillon, told Excelsior that militants made a major infiltration bid in Baktoor area of Gurez sector last night and alert troops foiled it.
The BGS said that the infiltrators had come near the fence where they were challenged leading to an encounter. He said an Army jawan, Rifleman Chandra Singh, of 36 RR was killed in the exchange of firing between the infiltrators and the soldiers.
He said that the militants were trying to infiltrate in two groups of five persons each at 500 metres distance from each other. He said that massive search operation has been launched in the area. He, however, said that the infiltrators retreated after they were encountered by the Army.
Brig Dhillon said that the infiltrators left behind one pistol and a grenade and war like stores that were recovered by troops during search operations that are going on in the forests near the LoC.
Last year in August, 13 infiltrators were killed by Army in Gurez sector of Bandipora and some of the militants had managed to infiltrate and flee into the Kanzalwan forests and Army had launched massive operations against them.
It may be mentioned here that this year’s heavy snowfall in North Kashmir caused extensive damage to the LoC fence in many areas, especially along the Shamsabari Mountain range in Gurez sector. The snow in some of the areas was so deep that it had even buried the fence. It was a huge task to retrieve and repair the fence for Army but it was repaired by the Army to avoid militants using it for infiltration.
Army claims to have foiled majority of the infiltration bids this year but Lt Gen K T Parnaik, General Officer Commanding, Northern Command, said last week that this year, there have been 45 attempts made by infiltrators to come in but figures revealed there were 15 attempts made till June in which 35 to 38 militants have succeeded in infiltrating.
Army said around 550-600 militants are waiting on the launching pads across the Line of Control (LoC) to infiltrate into Jammu and Kashmir to fill the void created in the militant ranks due to successful operations across the State since last year.
Police sources said that militants across LoC in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) are desperate to send top commanders into Kashmir valley after security forces eliminated their commander during operations conducted since August last year.
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