Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Oct 10: Army today foiled a major terror plot after it detected a group of militants trying to plant five Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) along the Line of Control (LoC) in Army patrolling area at village Kirni, located ahead of fencing near Poonch even as Pakistan Army resumed heavy firing and shelling in Balakote, Mendhar and Balnoi sectors this afternoon.
This was after nearly a month that Pakistan Army fired mortar shells towards the Indian posts apart from resorting to firing using heavy firearms.
Official sources told the Excelsior that the Pakistani militants backed by their troops tried to plan five sophisticated IEDs along the LoC in forward village of Kirni, located ahead of border fencing in Poonch sector in early hours of this morning. The militants wanted to plant the IED to trigger casualties among the Army personnel, who used to patrol the forward areas during the night to thwart infiltration attempts.
A civilian Mohammad Azam is reported to have spotted the militants while planting the IEDs and sounded an alarm. Army and police personnel rushed to the village and cordoned off the areas. Observing movement of the troops, the militants escaped back to Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) along with the IEDs.
“It was a major terror plot hatched by the militants with the support of Pakistan Army to plant five powerful IEDs in the forward area and trigger casualties among the Indian Army personnel,’’ sources said, adding the IEDs would have gone off during the patrolling.
Earlier also, the militants had been laying booby traps along the LoC to cause casualties of the Army soldiers and the civilians living in forward areas. A number of Army jawans and civilians have suffered casualties in the IED and landmine blasts along the LoC.
Sources said the timely action by Army and police on the alert sounded by a civilian didn’t give any chance to the militants to plant the IEDs and they had to retreat to PoK from where they had come with sophisticated explosive devices.
Meanwhile, Pakistan Army today resumed mortar shelling in Balnoi, Balakote and Mendhar sectors of Poonch district after nearly a month. The Pakistani troops also resorted to firing with medium to heavy arms.
Sources said troops of Pakistan’s 651 Mujahid Regiment violated ceasefire at 5.40 pm today resorting to heavy firing and mortar shelling in Balakote sector targeting six forward posts of the Indian Army.
Simultaneously, Pakistani Army of 650 Mujahid Regiment started firing and shelling in eight posts of Mendhar sector at 5.50 pm. Firing in Balnoi sector started at 7.40 pm.
Indian troops retaliated effectively, leading to heavy exchanges for about one and a half hours. The firing ceased around 9.15 pm.
It was after nearly a month that Pakistan Army fired mortar shells in Balakote and Mendhar sectors. There had been heavy shelling from Pakistan side in almost entire month of August and few days of September in the aftermath of escalated tensions on the LoC after the killing of five Indian Army soldiers in Sarla battalion area at Chakan-Da-Bagh in Poonch sector on the intervening night of August 5 and 6.
After the first week of September, the shelling along the LoC had stopped but ceasefire violations from the Pakistan side continued almost regularly.
The fresh shelling has triggered panic among the people living in forward areas. In the month of August and September, a number of civilians apart from the Army soldiers had been injured in the mortar shelling.
Troops have been maintaining high alert along the LoC anticipating infiltration attempts by the militants under the covering fire of the Pakistani troops. The Army hasn’t allowed the infiltration attempts to succeed.
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