The Army is engaged in a sustained battle with infiltrators in frontier Kupwara district of north Kashmir as heavily armed lashkar-e-Tayyeba militants have sneaked into line of Control. The Genral Officer Commanding of Srinagar based XV Corps, lt Gen Gurmeet Singh said that lashkar and jaish-e-Muhammad outfits are making desperate attempts to send their cadres to enhance violent activities in Kashmir Valley.
Speaking to mediapersons at the Corps headquarters Singh said that five lashkar militants have been killed during a three-day long encounter with Army in Hafrada forest area of north Kashmir’s Kupwara district. “Five lashkar-e-Tayyeba (militants) have been killed so far and five AK-47 Rifles and other war-like stores have been recovered from the encounter site,” he said. He said that a few soldiers were wounded in the encounter but all of them are stable.
The group of heavily armed militants was part of an infiltration group which has managed to reach the area. “The search operation in the area in still continuing,” Singh, who is also the security advisor to Chief Minister, said. Singh said that during the past 72 hours, as many as 11 militants have been shot dead in Kupwara. “Five of them (slain militants) were neutralized during counter- infiltration operations along the loC”, he said.
“Four infiltrating militants were killed in Macchil Sector on Tuesday, while a militant was shot dead and two others injured in Keran sector of Kupwara district on Monday,” he added. The Cops Commander refused to divulge the exact estimates about the presence of militants in Kashmir Valley. The upsurge in militant activities and number of casualties suffered by the security forces is a serious issues confronting the security forces in Kashmir. However, the army says that it has effectively sealed the loC and perfected intelligence mechanism to the extent that most of the times the security forces receive prior information about the possibility of infiltration from across the border.