Fayaz Bukhari
SRINAGAR, Aug 8: Three Border Security Force (BSF) personnel, including an officer, and a militant were killed and two Army personnel were injured as troops foiled an infiltration bid along the Line of Control (LoC) in Macchil sector of North Kashmir today.
A Defence spokesman said here that one militant and two BSF men were killed when Army foiled an infiltration bid in Macchil sector along the LoC in North Kashmir’s Kupwara district. He said that the operation is going on and Army has recovered arms and ammunition and war like stores during searches of the area.
Sources said that militants attacked a BSF post Roshni, early today at 6.30 a.m in Macchil Sector along the LoC. He said that three BSF and two Army personnel were injured in the attack.
The injured have been identified as Sub Inspector Mohinder Yadav, Head Constable C P Singh and Constable Babu Shaan and Army personnel Jitinder Singh and Paramjeet Singh.
All the three BSF personnel later succumbed to injuries and Army launched a massive operation against the militants and one of them was shot dead in fierce gun battle that continued for two hours.
Army launched a massive operation after the attack on BSF forward post and during searches they recovered dead body of a militant and war like stores. The search operation is still going on.
Sources said that the attack was done by the Border Action Team (BAT) but Army said it was an infiltration bid that was foiled.
This is the second attack on the BSF forward post along the LoC in North Kashmir this month. Earlier on August 1, one BSF man was injured as militants attacked a BSF post of 38 Battalion at Tanghdar area. The BSF sources said that it was a BAT attack that they had foiled.
This is the fifth infiltration bid that was foiled by the Army today during last fortnight. On August 6, a militant was killed in Nowgam sector as an infiltration bid was foiled by the Army.
A senior Army officer said that around 300 militants are waiting on the launching pads in PoK ready to infiltrate into Kashmir before onset of winter. “These militants are making desperate attempts to infiltrate as security forces have killed large number of their members in Kashmir valley this year”, he said.
This year security forces killed 92 militants so far which is highest in recent years. But the infiltration has also gone up and according to Multi-Agency Centre (MAC) figures, this year till June, 56 militants, mostly belonging to LeT, have infiltrated into Kashmir while last year the number was 35 for the whole year.