Fayaz Bukhari
Srinagar, Nov 13: A militant was killed and two soldiers were injured, one of them critically, in a gun battle in North Kashmir’s Kupwara forests today.
Army’s 41 Rashtriya Rifles (RR) cordoned off the village Payerpati, Manigah along Line of Control (LoC) in the frontier district of Kupwara this morning following specific information about the presence of three militants in the area.
An Army party was fired upon during the searches in the area by the militant group injuring two soldiers Naik Ram Avtar and Sepoy Hokhare Jitender. The Army also fired back killing one militant. However, body of the militant has not been recovered yet.
Both the soldiers were immediately shifted to military hospital Drugmulla where from they were airlifted to Army’s 92 Base Hospital at Badami Bagh Cantonment in Srinagar. The condition of Ram Avtar is stated to be critical.
SP Kupwara, Aijaz Ahmad, said that security forces received information about presence of three militants in the Kupwara forests and an operation was launched by Army and Police. He said that there has been firing during the operation and due to bad weather the operation has been put on hold for the night. He said that the militant group is trapped inside the forest area and operation will be resumed in the morning.
More troops have been rushed to the area and more forest area has been cordoned off so that the militants may not flee from the cordoned area.
Sources said that the militant group was spotted three days ago and Army was after them. Today they were again spotted and operation was launched against them.
Sources said that the group has recently infiltrated and has been trapped in the mountainous terrain due to heavy rains and snowfall and intense cold weather conditions. They said one of the members of the group died due to cold and frost bites four days ago. His body was recovered by the 41 RR of Army during search operation in forest areas of Kumkadi and Trumnad in Safawali sector on Nov 10.
Another operation in North Kashmir’s Bandipor forests is going on for last three weeks against a group of LeT militants. So far, one Army jawan was killed in that operation on October 28 and it is going on.
Army and Police launched a massive search operation in the Serinder Kudara forest area of North Kashmir’s Bandipora district last month after they received information about the presence of a militant group. One Army personnel was killed on October 28 when militants opened fire on troops.
Army’s 14, 27 and 13 Rashtriya Rifles (RR), 7 para-commandos, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and Special Operations Group (SOG) of Jammu and Kashmir Police launched the operation initially.
The operation continued as security forces believed that the militant group is still present inside the forest. Four days ago Army had a contact with the group but the militants managed to give slip to the troops.
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