Fayaz Bukhari
—Excelsior/Aabid Nabi
SRINAGAR, June 6: Army foiled a major infiltration bid along the Line of Control (LoC) in Toot Mari Gali (TMG) sector early this morning killing three militants who were trying to infiltrate into Kashmir.
General Officer Commanding (GOC) of Army’s 15 Corps, Lt General Subrata Saha, told reporters that troops noticed movement of infiltrators near LoC in Toot Mari Gali sector and launched an operation killing three militants.
“The contact was established last night at 10.30 p.m on the Line of Control (LoC) in the area called Toot Mari Gali sector. As far as reports are with me, three terrorists are killed and we have recovered weapons which include AK-47 and Under Barrel Grenade Launchers (UBGLs) and other warlike stores”, the GOC said.
Lt General Saha said that the searches are still going on in the area. “We don’t know yet the organization to which they belonged to. Once the search operation is completed and their belongings are recovered, then only we can know the organization. It is premature to say anything on it”, he added.
An Army spokesman said: “The Army on early morning today intercepted an infiltrating group of militants in the Toot Mari Gali sector of Kupwara district. On being challenged by the Army, the infiltrators opened indiscriminate fire which led to retaliatory fire by the troops. In the ensuing heavy exchange of fire, three militants were killed. The bodies of the militants were recovered along with the recovery of 3 AK-47 with 300 rounds, 5 UBGL with 9 UBGL rounds, 5 Chinese grenades, 3 GPS and 5 radio sets. As per last reports, the operation was still in progress.”
Sources said that Army had laid an ambush on the LoC after noticing movement of 4-5 militants near Atma post in TMG sector last night. Army’s 3 Kumaon regiment fired at the infiltrators leading to a fierce gun battle during the night. Three of them were killed and rest managed to flee under the cover of darkness.
Army launched massive operation to trace rest of the militants. However, sources said that they managed to flee back to the Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK). Massive searches are still on near the LoC and Army has recovered arms and ammunition including war like stores from the encounter site.
This is the second infiltration bid that was foiled by the Army along the LoC in Kashmir this month. Army killed four militants after it noticed the movement of 5-6 militants in Tanghdar sector of Kupwara during intervening night of 30 and 31. Four militants were killed in three day operation and four AK-47 rifles and one UBGL was recovered from the site. One civilian was also killed in the gun battle.
Earlier, last month Army foiled an infiltration attempt in Tanghdar sector of North Kashmir killing one militant. Two Army personnel were killed and an Army officer was injured in the gun battle.
This year Army has eliminated 8 militants on the LoC so far while last year Army had killed 59 militants.
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