Srinagar, Sep 16 (UNI) Three militants were killed as security forces foiled an infiltration bid in Baramulla district of Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday, the Army said.
A senior security officer claimed that the Pakistani Army interfered in the counter infiltration operation that took place close to the Line of Control (LoC) at Hathlanga Uri and provided fire support to one of the injured militants.
“Pakistani Army post provided fire support to exfiltrate an injured terrorist and they fired at us. Our parties used quadcopters (during the operation) and the Pakistani Army opened fire even on them,” the Commander of Army’s 161 brigade, Brigadier P M S Dhillon said during a press conference in Baramulla. “This operation shows that the Pakistan Army is involved in pushing terrorists and helping them in infiltration. They give fire and moral support to disturb our peace here.”
Brigadier Dhillon said a five kilos IED was also recovered from the killed terrorists.
“Our guess is that they might have planned to use this IED to target any sensitive area like a minority pocket in the area,” he said
Brigadier Dhillon said that from the last few days they were getting intelligence that Pakistani outfits were planning to infiltrate into Uri and disturb the peace in Baramulla and Uri by carrying out an IED attack.
Because of intelligence inputs, Army and police enhanced the security and counter infiltration grid was strengthened, he said.
The Army officer said this morning when the weather was bad and it was raining and foggy, the infiltration attempt was noticed.
“Today at 6.40 am the weather was really bad as it was raining and foggy when an Army’s ambush party noticed three to four terrorists were trying to cross LoC near the Hatlanga nallah. Immediately a contact was established and a firefight continued for two hours. During these two hours Indian Army used UBGLs, MGLS and rocket launchers and in this gunfight one terrorist was neutralized,” Commander of Army’s 161 brigade said.
He said the other ambush parties noticed that two terrorists who were injured had changed their location and at 9.15 am the firefight resumed for another half an hour in which another terrorist was neutralized.
An AK 47, AK 74 , seven magazines, and grenades were also recovered from the encounter site.
The officer said it was a joint operation by the Indian Army, Police and intelligence agencies.
The infiltration bid was foiled at a time when a massive anti-militancy operation is underway in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district to neutralise two to three Laskar-e-Taiba militants, killing two Army officers and a Deputy Superintendent of Police. The operation at Garol in the Kokarnag forest area continued on the fourth day on Saturday.
