Fayaz Bukhari
SRINAGAR, Dec 25: The Army today said that militants in Pakistan are desperate for infiltration and smuggling of arms and ammunition into Kashmir as their numbers and ammunition is at an all time low in the Valley.
General Officer Commanding (GOC) of Army’s 19 Infantry Division Major General Ajay Chandpuria while addressing a press conference in Baramulla after security forces recovered a huge cache of arms and ammunition near the Line of Control (LoC) in the Hathlanga area of Uri in Baramulla district said that situation in Kashmir is near normal.
“The situation is near normal in Kashmir valley as the number of terrorists and the availability of war-like stores is at an all-time low. So, there is a huge desperation from the other side to either infiltrate terrorists or smuggle war-like stores,” he said.
The GOC said that war like stores recovered in Uri was left by the militants who withdrew to the PoJK.
“We are still following up the leads and certain details cannot be shared, but a movement close to the launchpads was picked up. Probably, they (terrorists) panicked and left the war-like stores behind and withdrew to that side,” he said.
He said there have been attempts on the border not only of infiltration but also of smuggling war-like stores and drugs in the past as well.
“There are some areas like this one where we have houses ahead of the LoC fence, closer to the LoC, and because of the movement of the people right to the LoC, such attempts are reported from time to time,” he said.
The Army Commander said based on the Intelligence inputs received from multiple intelligence agencies over a period of two weeks about infiltration attempts and dumping of war-like stores by militants in the Hathlanga area of Rampur Sector, multiple ambushes and search operations were conducted since fortnight along the LoC.
He said that on Friday, a search operation was launched in the general area of Hathlanga Nallah which lasted for eight hours and concluded with the recovery of arms, ammunition and other war-like stores.
The GOC said the recoveries include eight AK-74 rifles, 24 AK-74 rifle magazines, 560 7.62mm AK-74 live ammunition, 12 .30mm Chinese pistol, 24 Chinese pistol magazines, 244 .30mm pistol live ammunition, nine Chinese hand grenades, five Pakistani-origin hand grenades, 81 balloons with “I Love Pakistan” marking on them, and five synthetic gunny nags with Pakistani marking.
In this sector, this year, in about 6-8 operations along the LoC or close to the LoC, 14 AK rifles, 20 pistols, one M16 rifle, 76 hand grenades, 1226 AK rounds, 484 9mm rounds, 15 kg of drugs and 10 more suspicious narcotic packets have been recovered, the Army officer said.
SSP Baramulla, Rayees Muhammad Bhat, told reporters that balloons were sent along the LoC in Kashmir for the first time. “Balloons, which are typically sent more frequently to the Jammu side, have been sent to the Valley side for the first time. It perhaps points towards a kind of attempt to instigate certain propaganda again,” he added.
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