In a second gun-battle in as many days, along the line of Control (loC) in north Kashmir’s Kupwara district, four infiltrators and a soldier were killed in Tangdhar sector on Thursday.
A day earlier, a soldier and two militants died in Macchil during a fierce encounter. The upsurge in violence shows that militants are desperately attempting to take advantage of the summer season to infiltrate into Kashmir Valley.
Sources said that during the past one month, a number of successful attempts have been made. Sources said that around 40 militants, armed with automatic weapons, have succeeded in crossing the loC without being intercepted.
Defence sources said that the troops of 1/3 Gorkha Rifles regiment deployed along the loC intercepted a group of militants near Tikri post in Tangdhar sector early on Thursday. The gunfight continued for several hours resulting in the death of four militants.
The Army said that a soldier was wounded in the gunfight and succumbed to his injuries in hospital.
On Tuesday, a soldier identified as Signalman Ajay Singh Choudhary and two militants were killed in a gunfight that continued for three days in Katwara forests of Macchil sector.
The body of Choudhary was on Thursday dispatched to his native place in Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan after a ceremony at XV Corps headquarters in Srinagar.
Paying tributes to the 24-year-old soldier XV Corps commander lieutenant-General Satish Dua, said that such exemplary acts always serve as an inspiration not only to the uniformed community but to the entire nation.
The last infiltration bid was foiled in Tootmar Gali area of Nowgam sector during the intervening night of May 26 and 27. Four unidentified militants and a soldier were killed in the two-day operation. The slain militants possessed an assortment of automatic weapons and warlike stores, Defence sources said.