Fayaz Bukhari
SRINAGAR, Oct 29: Security forces today killed two more Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) militants including their commander in two day long gun battle that started yesterday morning in the forests of Handwara in the frontier district of Kupwara.
Sources said that one of the killed militants is LeT commander. “All of them are foreigners from whose possession three AK-47 rifles, AK magazines, one UBGL, one matrix sheet, one compass, one GPS and warlike stores were recovered. It looks that one of the militants was the commander as the devices that were recovered are carried by a commander only”, said sources.
The security forces had information about the presence of 3-4 militants of the LeT in the forest area of Wudur Bala. The troops of 21 RR, 30 RR, 32 RR, 6 RR, 9 para of Army, 92 Battalion of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and Special Operations Group (SOG) of Jammu and Kashmir Police launched an operation against them during night intervening October 27 and October 28. Later the troops of 52 RR, 22 RR, 14 RR and 27 RR have been rushed for the outer cordon so that the militants may not escape.
A defence spokesman said that troops killed two more militants in Wudur Bala area of Handwara in the frontier district of Kupwara taking the number of militants killed in the encounter to three. “In an ongoing operation in Hundwara, the Army today neutralized three hard core foreign Terrorists and recovered three AK-47 rifles besides a large amount of warlike stores”, the spokesman added.
The spokesman indentified the Army officer killed in the encounter as Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO), Rajesh Kumar. “In the exchange of fire Nb Sub Rajesh Kumar of Rashtriya Rifles made the supreme sacrifice, having suffered fatal gunshot wounds”, the spokesman added.
The spokesman said that the poor visibility, rains and dense fog hampered the operation. “This group was eliminated in the higher reaches of Wudur Bala forest. Due to the dense forest the visibility is highly limited, further restricted by the heavy rain and dense fog. The group was carefully tracked and cordoned off well before they could merge with the population.
Contact with the terrorist group took place on Oct 27 which ensued into a brief but intense firefight. Intermittent exchange of fire continued over the next 24 hours. On 28 Oct during the search of the area, the terrorists opened heavy automatic fire which was immediately retaliated. The operation continued into the following day when three foreign terrorists were neutralized by 1200 hours on 29 Oct”, the spokesman added.
The spokesman said that the search operations in the areas is still going on. “The search of the thickly forested areas is still continuing. The killing of three heavily armed foreign terrorists of the LeT clearly establishes the robustness of the counter infiltration and counter terrorist grid of the Army”, the spokesman added.
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