Pak army gives cover to infiltrators, targets quadcopter
Fayaz Bukhari
SRINAGAR, Sept 16: Army today foiled an infiltration bid along the Line of Control (LoC) in Uri sector of district Baramulla and killed three militants. It said that the Pakistan army gave cover fire to infiltrators and targeted quadcopters of the Indian Army.
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Addressing a press conference in North Kashmir’s Uri, Brigadier P M S Dhillon said that they launched an operation at Hathlanga in the Uri sector along the LoC early today following specific inputs about infiltration attempts by militants.
“We strengthened our counter-infiltration and surveillance grid after receiving inputs about the possible infiltration bid in Uri sector aimed at destabilising peace in Jammu and Kashmir,” he said.
“Despite bad weather, at 6.40 am, an ambush noticed three to four terrorists trying to cross the LoC in the Hathlanga area. Immediately contact was established and the firefight continued for two hours,” he added.
Army used under-barrel grenade launchers (UBGL), multi-grenade launchers (MGL), and rocket launchers to neutralise the heavily armed infiltrators.
“One terrorist was neutralised. The ambush party then realised that two injured terrorists had changed their movement. The ambush party then got into a second firefight with them at around 9.15 am which continued for about half an hour and resulted in the neutralisation of the second terrorist. The third injured terrorist exfiltrated with the help of firing from a nearby Pakistani post,” he said.
“The Pakistani army post gave fire support for his exfiltration and fired towards us. They fired on our quadcopters as well. According to our estimate, the injured terrorist succumbed about 300 metres from the Pakistani post, in the general area. The weather is very bad, but the search continues in the area,” he said.
The officer said three militants from Pakistan have been neutralised in the operation and the bodies of the two have been retrieved.
He said that this shows how the Pakistan army backs infiltrators and lends them full support to infiltrate. “It also establishes how Pakistan army is involved in destabilising peace in Kashmir,” he said.
“We recovered an AK-47 and AK-74 rifle, seven magazines, a five-kg IED, some ammunition, a Chinese pistol and some grenades along with Indian and Pakistani currency from the terrorists,” he added.
“We think they wanted to use the IED at some sensitive target, including minority pocket or security forces’ establishment,” Dhillon said.
In the meantime, security forces busted a militant hideout in Handwara area of Kupwara district and recovered arms and ammunition.
“During a search operation at Wadder Bala by parties of Army 21RR, Handwara Police and CRPF 92 Bn, a hideout of arms and ammunition was busted,” a police official said.
Two AK 47 rifles, one AK 56 rifle, 16 AK magazines, 328 AK rounds, one pistol, two pistol magazines, three pistol rounds, one UBGL and four UBGL rounds were recovered,” he said
He said that a case (FIR No 208/2023) has been registered at Police Station Handwara under relevant sections UAPA and Arms Act and investigation initiated.
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