Srinagar: The Army on Sunday apprehended infiltration and escalation in violence in coming months in Kashmir but asserted that the troops were prepared to meet the
challenge.
"This is going to be hot summer terrorism-wise in Kashmir
as approximately 300 militants are active in the valley while
another 400 are waiting in wings in Pakistan occupied Kashmir
to cross over to this side to step up violence," Brigadier
General Staff 15th Corps Gurmeet Singh told reporters here.
However, he said there was no need to panic as the Army
troops are well prepared and equipped to meet the challenge.
"Approximately, 42 training camps were intact across the
border. Of them 34 are active and 400 militants are waiting
for an opportunity to cross over to this side from 20
launching pads," Brigadier Singh said.
He said the Army had prior information about the recent
infiltration bid made by militants in keran sector of Kupwara
district.
"We were prepared for this and eliminated 8 terrorists in
keran sector from March 24 till yesterday. The mixed group of
militants of Lashkar-e-Toiba, Hizbul Mujahideen and
Harkat-ul-Mujahideen comprising eight terrorists were
eliminated", Singh said, adding the infiltrators were
foreigners.
"This year, we have killed 28 terrorists in the valley
which also includes those killed in the counter terrorist grid
in the hinterland," the Brigadier said.
When asked why operation is still going on in the keran
sector when all eight infiltrators were killed, Singh said
"Operation is still on. The area is being searched and we are
checking the entire area for our satisfaction."
Asked whether Taliban activists were among the mixed
group of militants waiting to cross over to this side, Singh
said, "there are no combulative information about Taliban
among the terrorists waiting to cross over to this side."
Refuting media reports that 16 infiltration bids had
taken place during this year, the Army officer said, "in our
zone of operation it was the first infiltration bid (March
24). The area of infiltration is high altitude with rugged
mountains and is snow-clad, currently having 12-15 feet of
snow".
Singh said the slain terrorists, as evident from the
recoveries, were heavily armed, well equipped of snow and high
altitude area and had the latest communication and navigation
equipment, indicative of the support of intelligence and
government agencies from across the Line of Control.
"In this area, border wire fencing is still submerged
under snow. After the initial group had infiltrated and was
encountered, the second group, which was following them, was
seen returning to their area and were effectively engaged by
own troops. It has also been reliably learnt that seven to
eight terrorists of the returned group also suffered critical
injuries", he said.
The Army personnel shot dead two infiltrators in keran
sector on March 24 and killed another on March 26 while five
were gunned down yesterday.
Singh termed it as a "major success" for the Army in the
counter infiltration grid as not a single soldier had suffered
any injury while eight terrorist were eliminated, indicating
"our preparedness and coordination of counter infiltration
grid in the Line of Control area."
"This year, we have occupied additional counter
infiltration positions and repair of border fencing has also
commenced earlier", he said.
Singh said the recovered weapons, ammunition, equipment,
food items, medicines and also some video-clips and
photographs clearly indicate high degree of desperation of
terrorists and their mentors and their preparedness for
infiltration attempts.
The major items recovered from the slain militants
included eight AK 47 and 56 rifles, a pistol, three under
barrel grenade launchers, five hand grenades, a global
positioning system (GPS), three thuraya set, five Rs/COM, five
mobile phones, three map sheets, two matrix sheet and a high
resolution binocular, Singh said.
He said Indian currency of Rs 98,000 was also recovered,
half of which was fake currency.
PTI
