: Army Thursday said they killed five militants while their two soldiers were injured in an encounter in Handwara. It said two more operations are going on against militants at different places in frontier district of Kupwara in north Kashmir. Addressing a hurriedly called press conference at Badamibagh Cantonment here, General Officer Commanding (GOC) 15 Corps, Lt General Gurmit Singh said that five militants were killed in Hafruda forests of Handwara in a 72-hour long operation. “All of them are Lashker-e-Toiba (LeT) militants. Their identify is being ascertained,” Gen Singh said. “They have most likely infiltrated quite recently. We are ascertaining from which area and when they have infiltrated,” he added. The Army General said that two soldiers were also injured. “Both are stable,” he said adding that it was difficult to carry out the operation in Hafruda because of rugged terrain and bad weather. However, reliable sources said three Army personnel were injured, one of them critically, in the fierce gun battle. They said heavily armed militants Wednesday evening opened fire on a search party of 21 Rashtriya Rifles in Hafruda injuring 3 soldiers. More troops, sources said, were rushed to the area and at around 5 a.m. Thursday the gun-battle started again that left five militants dead. They said that following the gun battle, more troops were rushed to the spot where the Army search party was fired upon. This is the second biggest encounter in Hafruda as earlier in 2009, eight Army personnel and 17 LeT militants were killed in five-day long encounter in the area. Sources further said that the militant group has infiltrated 11 days ago through Ustad Post in Tangdhar Sector. They added that they were first intercepted by the soldiers of 6 RR and SOG Handwara on July 29 morning. “Since then they were trapped as the vast area of forests was under cordon,” sources said. The GOC said that since July 28, 10 militants have been killed so far. “Five militants were killed by the troops of LoC formations and five were killed in hinterland by soldiers of Kilo Force,” he said. Gen Singh said that two more operations are going on. “One is going in Lolab and other in Tangdhar Sector,” he said. Sources said Army and SOG launched a massive operation in parts of Lolab forests in district Kupwara after inputs that a group of Jaish e Muhammad (JeM) militants were hiding in the forest area. They said Army’s 9 Para, 18 Rashtriya Rifles and SOG cordoned off the Saiwan, Malgund and Shahgund forest areas following the inputs of presence of around five militants. However, there is no report of any casualty yet.
Posted on: Fri, 02 Aug 2013 01:07:03 +0000
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