Fayaz Bukhari
Srinagar, Aug 6: An Army soldier was killed in a fierce gun battle in Tanghdar sector of North Kashmir’s Kupwara district near the Line of Control (LoC) this morning.
Sources said that a group of 5-6 militants have infiltrated from Tanghdar sector of the LoC into Gageldari forest area. They said that on specific intelligence inputs about their presence, Army’s 3/1 GR, 5/5 GR and 20 RR launched operation against them yesterday.
The militants hiding in the area opened fire on troops leading to a fierce gun battle in which one Army jawan was killed. The jawan has been identified as Naik Damodar Thapa of 3/1 GR and resident of Nepal.
The Army has launched massive searches in the area against the militant group. The search operation has been suspended during the night and will be resumed in the morning.
Last week four militants were killed in a fierce encounter with the Army in the Tanghdar sector.
During past one month there have been at least eight infiltration attempts by the militants from across the LoC to infiltrate into Kashmir during which Army shot dead 4 infiltrators near the LoC in North Kashmir.
In the meantime, Army’s 6RR and SOG Handwara launched a search operation in Shonth forest area of Handwara in the frontier district of Kupwara today. They recovered huge cache of arms and ammunition from the forest area during searches. The recovered arms and ammunition include two AK-47, two AK magazine, 31 AK-47 rounds, one pistol, one pistol magazine, six UBGL grenades and chinese hand grenades.
Police today recovered body of a militant from Suraipora Kreeri area of North Kashmir along with an INSAS rifle that was snatched from a policeman in Pattan few days back.
Police said that on a tip off Baramulla police, 29 RR and 176 CRPF launched a cordon in village Suraipora, while the cordon was being laid few gunshots were heard from a house. “The police party approached the house and recovered the body of Mudasir Ahmad Sofi resident of Palhalan, Pattan and also recovered an Insas rifle near the deceased alongwith some used cartridges”, the spokesman said.
“Initial investigation revealed that the rifle belonged to the policeman who was attacked in Pattan with an axe few days back”, the spokesman said.
An Indian Reserve Police (IRP) man, Firdous Ahmad Baba, was attacked with an axe in main market Pattan last week and his rifle was snatched.
Sources said Sofi was missing since August 1, a day before the Pattan rifle snatching incident, and his family had lodged the missing report with Police Station Pattan.
The Palhalan observed shut down against his death and people protested against it. Hundreds of people participated in the funeral of the youth. The highway near Palhalan remained shut for at least two hours and traffic was diverted through Naid Khai.
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