Battles Rage In Handwara Forests, 5 More Killed

SRINAGAR: Fierce gunbattles between army and militants raged Thursday in dense forests of Hafruda in Handwara belt of North Kashmir and reports in the evening said five militants were killed today taking the death toll in three-day long operation to 10.

GOC of the Srinagar-based 15 Corps, Lt General Gurmit Singh told reporters at Badami Bagh base camp that 72-hour-long Hafruda operation in Rajwar, Handwara forest belt concluded today with the killing of five Lashkar-i-Tayiba militants.

He said that two army jawans also sustained injuries, and “their condition was improving now”. 

He however, said that search operation was still in progress in the dense forest area. “The bodies of all the slain militant have been recovered with huge quantity of war like stores including under barrel grenade launcher”, he said.

GOC said that with the killing of 5 militants in Hafruda, toll has reached 10 in overall operations in North Kashmir including Keran and Machil sectors since last three days.

He said that four militants were killed in Machil sector two days ago after a group of 5-6 militants tried to sneak in to this side. “However their attempt was foiled by our alert troops deployed in the area.”

“1 AK-56 with 1 magazine, a pistol with two magazines, 15 rounds, pistol with modified butt and a magazine and a round, a twelve-bore single barrel gun, 23 twelve-bore live cases, 4 Chinese grenades, a binocular, a bag with medicines and food items were recovered from the site,” he said.  

On July 29 last month, a militant was killed in Keran sector after a group of 3-4 militants tried to sneak into this side, thus foiled the attempt by killing one of the intruders and injuring 2 others.

“A fresh operation has been launched in most parts of Lolab forests and Tanghdar sector following the inputs regarding the presence of militants in the area”, he said, adding that it is premature to divulge the further details. “The operation is still in progress in all the sensitive forest areas of Kupwara district,” he added.

Responding to a question on the increased number of infiltration bids, the GOC said: “The militants may think it may be easy to infiltrate in these months (during summer) but our counter infiltration grid is alert and we are always ready for the challenge.”

Lt General Gurmit Singh claimed the number of infiltration attempts was rising as compared to previous year. He said attempts were still being made to send more militants into this side.“Though the number of infiltration (attempts) have gone up this year but we have not lowered guard,” he said, adding the troops are still on high alert to foil any such attempt.

He said besides intensifying night and foot patrolling, fencing and installing latest equipment has helped to curb the infiltration menace to quite an extent. “We have excellent intelligence network in place to take on challenges concerning us as there is excellent synergy between intelligence agencies and security forces and the present security situation in Valley is under control,” GOC said.

We have effective intelligence in place as we have excellent grid support from the intelligence and security forces and they are doing good job,” Gurmit added.

GOC also lauded the role of other security agencies including JK Police for their role during these operations.

Meanwhile, a fresh ceasefire violation was reported at Kamalkote sector of Uri in frontier Baramulla district early Thursday, sources said.

They said that Army’s 11 Madrass and Pakistani troopers exchanged an hour long firing in the sector, however, no loss of life reported, the sources added. 

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