Fayaz Bukhari
SRINAGAR, Aug 8: A Territorial Army jawan was killed and three Para-commandos were injured in a fierce gun battle that started at Taya Top in Tanghdar sector of the Line of Control (LoC) in the frontier district of Kupwara today.
Reports said that Army’s 20 Rashtriya Rifles (RR) noticed movement of 5-6 heavily armed militants at Taya Top this morning and launched a massive operation against the infiltrated militants.
A Territorial Army jawan, Rifleman Bashir Ahmad War, and his tracker dog were killed when militants opened fire on them this evening. War was critically injured in the firing and died on way to hospital.
Earlier, soon after the cordon was laid and 4-Para commandos were airlifted to the encounter site for the operation from Kupwara, they were fired at by the militants injuring three Para jawans.
Two of the injured Para-commandos have been identified as Havaldar Rajender Singh, 33, and Lance Naik Kowal Ram, 30. The condition of both the injured is said to be critical.
The inured jawans were airlifted to 92-Base Hospital at Badami Bagh Cantonment in Srinagar.
Sources said that the group had infiltrated during the night and was intercepted by 22-RR patrol party. Reinforcement was rushed to the area so as to prevent militants from fleeing the cordoned area. The firing has stopped but reports said that the militants are in the cordoned off area and operation against them continues.
Tanghdar sector is the traditional route for infiltrators and every year majority of the infiltrators cross the LoC through this route. The rugged terrain, high altitude and dense forests and bushes give natural cover to the infiltrators in the area which makes the infiltration easy in this sector as compared to other sectors.
Army says that this year there have been 8 infiltration attempts in which 17 militants were killed. “So far there were 8 attempts in which 17 terrorist were eliminated while trying to infiltrate”, Army says.
Last year, around 59 militants were eliminated along the LoC in Kashmir, mostly in Tanghdar sector. The figure was the highest in recent years.
Army says that the launch pads across the LoC in Pakistan occupied Kashmir are active. They say there are large number of militants and intensity of attempts to infiltrate is also high. They say every day, they receive intelligence inputs and are visible as well.
Army says that over 200 heavily armed militants are waiting on the launch pads ready to infiltrate.
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