Fayaz Bukhari
SRINAGAR, Nov 15: A major operation has been launched in Nowgam sector in North Kashmir’s frontier district of Kupwara to track the rest of the members of the group that infiltrated Wednesday night.
Two militants were gunned down by Army during the operation near the Line of Control (LoC) yesterday while rest of the group has managed to flee from the cordon. Army has now launched a massive operation to track down the rest members of the group.
Army said that they noticed the movement of a group of 5-6 heavily armed militants on Wednesday night in Nowgam sector of North Kashmir’s Kupwara district. The group had come 1500 meters inside the LoC into the Indian territory when they were intercepted. Two militants and 3 Army jawans were killed and two Army personnel were injured in the encounter.
Reinforcements have been sent to the area and larger area has been now cordoned off and massive searches are going on to eliminate rest of the members of the group.
Army sources said that the area has larger boulders and there is low visibility in the area and the boulders are acting as natural cover for these infiltrated militants.
The high altitude, low visibility and rocks are creating hurdles in the Army operation. Several Army units including Baramulla town based 46 RR and Handwara based 1 Naga regiment is also involved in the operation.
Army helicopters were hovering over the area to track down the infiltrated militants but they could not locate them as the area is rocky.
Army felt that three members of the group might have crossed over back to the Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) but they are not yet sure as there are no traces of their crossing the LoC towards PoK.
Two AK assault rifles and large quantity of ammunition and Rs one lakh Indian currency has been recovered from the encounter site.
This is the second major infiltration bid foiled by the troops near the LoC in Kupwara district within a week and sources said that militants are desperate to infiltrate at this time of the year when there has been light snowfall on the mountains there is sub-zero temperature.
On November 9, Army foiled a major infiltration bid by eliminating 4 heavily armed militants in Keran sector of the frontier district of Kupwara in North Kashmir while two infiltrators managed to flee back to the Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) in injured condition.
Meanwhile, Police said that they today arrested a Hizbul Mujahideen militant who had recently infiltrated from PoK.
Zahoor Ahmad Bhat of Shanoo Hardware in district Kupwara was arrested by police at Chotipora village. He had gone for arms training in 2001 and returned back recently.
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