Fayaz Bukhari
Srinagar, Apr 11: An Army jawan died and at least five others were injured today after an accidental blast inside a camp in North Kashmir’s Handwara area while as a major operation that was launched against militants in Rajwara forests ended this evening.
The General Officer Commanding (GOC) Kilo Force, Major General Sarath Chand said that one of the soldiers Sham Singh of village Sirmour, Himachal Pradesh, who was seriously injured in a grenade explosion inside a camp in Handwara in district Kupwara around 10:30am, died at Army’s base hospital in Srinagar. He said that a grenade exploded inside 21 Rashtriya Rifles camp in Zachadara area of Handwara in Kupwara district.
The Army officer said that the device exploded when the soldiers were preparing for an operation. “A group of soldiers were assembling the weapons needed during the operation when a grenade exploded accidentally,” the Army Commander said.
The soldiers were first removed to nearby Drugmulla hospital wherefrom three of them Naik Surrender Prakash of Rivari Haryana, Manohar Singh of Uttrakhand and Lance Naik Suresh Kumar of Mandi Himachal Pradesh, were shifted to Army’s base hospital and one of them is stated to be critical.
In the meantime, the operation that was launched by the security forces against militants in North Kashmir’s Rajwar forests in the frontier district of Kupwara end today after three days.
Army and police scanned large portion of the forests after they received inputs about movement of militants. Huge cache of arms and ammunition was recovered during the operation.
The GOC said that they had information about the presence of militant hideouts in the forests. He said that cache of arms and ammunition was recovered from upper reaches of the forest.
Major General Sarath Chand said that there are around 10-15 militants present in Rajwar area. He said that the area used to have presence of large number of foreign militants but last year security forces eliminated them including their top commanders in a series of operations.
On fresh infiltration in Rajwar area, the GOC said that apparently there has been no infiltration through this sector this year. He said Army has inputs about concentration of militants on the other side of the Line of Control (LoC).
The Army commander said that Army on the LoC is very alert and there is fence and anti-infiltration mechanism at place to stop infiltration.
Major General said that this year there have been reports of less militant movement in Rajwar forest area but last year the movement was more.
“However, over a dozen militants including their top commanders were killed in the operations in the forests last year”, he said.
Sources said after suffering huge casualties last year militants this year have decided to abandon Rajwar route for infiltration. “They are now concentrating on alternate routes in Macchil and Keran sector of Kupwara”, sources added.
Sources said that around 800 highly trained militants are waiting across on the LoC on launching pads in Macchil and Keran sectors to infiltrate into Kashmir. Army has further strengthened the anti-infiltration grid in the area to take on the challenge.
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