Coinciding with the three day long visit of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the United States of America, the Indian Army early Thursday morning eliminated three heavily armed infiltrators along the Line of Control (LoC) in Uri sector of North Kashmir’s Baramulla district.
According to the Indian army, at least one of them was a Pakistani national while the identity of the two other infiltrators could not be established till the time of filing the report.
The Indian army also claimed the infiltration bid could not have taken place without the active connivance of the local Pakistan army commanders.
The Indian army has also recovered a huge cache of arms and ammunition which included five AK rifles, seven pistols, one Revolver, 24 UBGL grenades, 38 Chinese grenades, 7 Pakistani grenades, 5 AK magazines, eatables, Indian and Pak currency etc.
Briefing media in Srinagar, Lt Gen DP Pandey, General Officer Commanding (GOC), Srinagar’s Chinar Corps(15 Corps) said, “a movement was observed in Hathlanga forest area for an infiltration bid. In a very short brief operation this attempt was eliminated by alert troops along the LoC. A similar attempt was made on (September) 18, which was foiled”.
The Commanding Officer of the Battalion which conducted the operation on ground zero told reporters via video conferencing, “We have been receiving various inputs about Pakistan’s attempt to carry out infiltration on LoC. Necessary counter measures on the loc had been taken which included enhancing surveillance and carryout some precautionary deployment”. The Commanding said, “On September 23, during early hours at around 6.00 a.m our troops deployed on LoC spotted three individuals crossing over to our own side of the line of control followed by two more which were slightly behind. On being challenged there was a fire fight in which three terrorists were neutralised”.
Commenting on the prevailing security situation along the LoC, Lt-Gen DP Pandey said, “We have been appreciating this in the last few months that while the infiltration is not ongoing the launch pads were filled up and before the winter months there will be concentrated efforts to push in the terrorists before the snowfall stops the possible routes”.
“In the last few weeks we have been getting credible inputs of a lot of activities in the launch pad areas and plans to carry out infiltration, the manifestation of which we saw first in Uri and second today morning”, Lt-Gen Pandey added.
Commenting on the role of Pakistan behind supporting the infiltration bid, Lt-Gen DP Pandey claimed, “It is just not possible that such a number of activities can take place without complicity or connivance of local Pak military commanders.
Either they have adopted the approach of ‘live and let live’ or definitely they are complicit in allowing such activities to enable infiltration of terrosist groups . So this is definitely a change in behaviour in about a month’s time”.
He said, the current level of peace and stability, the increase in tourist footfall, visits of large number of members of Parliament to nook and corner of the kashmir valley where they have interacted with every possible level of people of kashmiri is wrankling the elements across and the intent of sending small weapons in terms of pistols and grenades is to ensure you are arming so called ‘hybrid’ terrorists. He said, the youth who work or study during the day in the evening are given a task to carry out a hit.
Lt-Gen Pandey claimed attempts to destabilize peace and security here will definitely not be sustained or accepted. “We are totally committed to ensure the peaceful environment which is prevailing by taking out the terrosust of whichever ever use either through neutralising or ensuring that he comes back into the mainstream in the form of surrender or acceptance of his fault and thereafter he is taken out of the circulation from the terroist ranks”.
He said, “for us nothing has changed. Our counter infiltration grid has been strong since the start of summers, and will continue to remain the same. “We are alert, we are deployed with adequate forces on the loc and will ensure all bids are eliminated”.