Militant killed as Army foils another infiltration bid along LoC

Army foiled another infiltration bid along the Line of Control (LoC) in Gurez sector of north Kashmir's Bandipora district on Saturday by killing a militant. With this, the toll among the infiltrating militants in a series of clashes with the Army during past three days has risen to 13 whereas one soldier was also killed and two others injured.

Defence spokesman Col Rajesh Kalia said one militant was killed in Gurez sector today. "The weapon is his use has been seized and the operation is in progress,” he said.

Army has foiled at least seven infiltration bids along the LoC in the last 72-hours in Gurez, Machil, Naugam and Uri sectors and neutralised 13 heavily armed intruders. "The sinister design of Pakistan Army to push in multiple groups of armed intruders across the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir continue to be defeated by pro-active operations being carried out on the LoC," said a statement issued by the Udhampur-headquartered Northern Command.

"Explosives, inflammable material and arms and ammunition recovered from the intruders indicate Pakistan's designs to orchestrate high-profile terror incidents targeting innocent civilian population and security forces during the holy month of Ramadhan," the statement said.

A senior Army officer said that troops are on high alert along the LoC after inputs that 250 militants were waiting on the launch pads in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir for infiltration. According to official figures, 44 militants have been killed along the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir this year while the Army has been successful in preventing 24 infiltration attempts in the same period.

However, few group of militants have managed to sneak in and as per the Multi-Agency Centre (MAC) figures, 19 militants infiltrated this year till April. The MAC, responsible for counter-terrorism, consists of representatives from Army, police, paramilitary and intelligence agencies, for streamlining intelligence efforts.

However, sources said, the number of militants who infiltrated into Kashmir this year could be higher than the estimates of the MAC. "The MAC figures are a conservative estimate. Some of the recently infiltrated groups are yet to come under security forces radar and others are still in the forests along the LoC," they revealed.