Indian Army foils infiltration bid in Kashmir; one jawan, three militants killed along LoC

Srinagar: The army on Thursday gunned down three militants but lost one of its men while foiling an infiltration bid aided by the Pakistani Army in Naugam sector of north Kashmir, raising to seven the number of infiltrators killed on the Line of Control (LoC) in the last 48 hours. [caption id=“attachment_3474936” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. AP[/caption] The army said infiltration attempts were thwarted in Gurez, Machhil, Naugam and Uri sectors during the last two days and a large cache of arms, ammunition and “war-like” stores have been recovered. All the four infiltration bids were aided by the Pakistani forces who provided active support, including cover fire using heavy calibre artillery, the army’s Northern Command said in a statement. “Alert troops foiled an infiltration bid in Naugam sector. Three terrorists have been killed, while one soldier has been martyred,” an army official said. The statement said that an anti-infiltration operation was in progress in Uri sector, while in Gurez, armed intruders ran back leaving rucksacks behind. The Northern Command statement said the army has foiled multiple attempts made by the Pakistan Army to push armed infiltrators across the LoC. “In the last 48 hours, infiltration attempts have been foiled at the Gurez, Machhil, Naugam and Uri sectors. Seven armed intruders have been eliminated so far,” it said. With these four operations, the army has thwarted six infiltration attempts along the LoC in less than a fortnight in North Kashmir, it said. On 26 May, the army had said that it had killed two Pakistani Border Action Team (BAT) members who tried to infiltrate through the Uri sector in Baramulla district to carry out an attack on the soldiers. Six more militants were killed in the same sector, the next day, when they attempted to sneak into the valley. The Northern Command claimed that in the current year, 22 infiltration attempts have been foiled and 34 armed intruders have been eliminated along the LoC. “Relentless operations by security forces have defeated desperate attempts by Pakistan and its agents to spread terror in Jammu and Kashmir during the holy month of Ramzan,” the statement said.