Baramulla: India's long maintained stance over Pakistani army-militant nexus has come to the fore again as Saturday's encounter opened the fissures yet again bringing the focus on Pak-sponsored terror in Jammu and Kashmir.
Brigadier PMS Dhillon, commander of the Pir Panjal Brigade of the Indian army spilled beans on the Pakistani troops' cover up fire to aid militants bid to sneak into the Indian territory and cause mayhem. The infiltration bid was apparently failed but Pakistan army's gesture exposed the neighbouring country's army's sinister plan often flagged by New Delhi in international forums.
The army official also gave details of the encounter. “The first firefight with the terrorists lasted for about two hours. It began at 6.40 am and continued till 8.40 am in the morning. In this firefight, the Indian army used UBGLs, MGLS and rocket launches and during this firefight, a terrorist was neutralised. After this, the ambush parties present there noticed that the terrorist who was injured had changed his movement a bit. So accordingly the ambush took a decision and at around 9.25 a second fight started. This fire fight lasted for about half an hour in which the second terrorist was also neutralised. During this time, the third terrorist, who was injured accelerated with the help of the farmhouse board of the Pakistan Army post which is nearby,” Brigadier Dhillon said. He added that the search operation in the area is still underway.
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Brigadier PMS Dhillon said Pakistan forces gave covering fire to one of three terrorists, who tried to cross over into India from across the Line of Control (LoC) in the Uri town of Baramulla district. All three infiltrators were neutralised by the security forces on Saturday.
The commander of the Pir Panjal Brigade of the Indian army further said the infiltration bid was fauiled as three intruders killed, only two bodies could be recovered as the retrieval of the third impeded because of the firing from across the border.
“Based on specific inputs, in a joint operation launched by the Indian army and J&K Police, an infiltration bid was foiled today. 3 terrorists tried to infiltrate and were engaged by alert troops. two terrorists were eliminated and their bodies recovered, the third terrorist was killed but the retrieval of the body was interfered with by firing by the Pak post in the vicinity, on LoC. Search operations are underway,” Brigadier Dhillon said.
He added that the Pakistan army post provided fire support to accelerate the terrorist fire towards the Indian side. “The army parties involved also fired potters there. Pakistan Army also fired on our potters. And this terrorist who accelerated towards Pakistan about three hundred and four hundred meters, inside the forest area, he fell there and according to our estimate he was killed there and his body which we assume was recovered from there. The weather was very bad. Due to this, there was no clarity but further operations and search has been going on in this area till 2 o'clock. The operation has initially stopped at 2 o'clock,” the official said.
During the operation, a huge cache of arms, ammunition and currencies, both Indian and Pakistani, was recovered by the Indian Army and J&K Police from the terrorists who tried to infiltrate.
