Srinagar, Mar 28: Army on Sunday claimed that nearly 400 militants were waiting to sneak into Kashmir from across the Line of Control.  
 “We have got inputs that around 400 militants are ready to sneak into the valley. We predict a hot summer ahead,” the Brigadier General Staff (BGS) of Srinagar based 15 Corps, Gurmeet Singh, told a news conference here.
 He claimed that nearly 300 militants were present in the Valley.
 Asked whether there was a possibility of Taliban fighters being among the 400 militants, he responded: “There has been no corroboration about it.”
 The Brigadier, who was flanked by the army’s Srinagar based spokesman Lt Col J S Brar, said that 49 militants were killed in the state since January 1, 2010. Of these, he said, at least 28 were killed in Valley alone. In the corresponding period last year, he said Army had killed 38 militants.
 He said that eight militants were killed in Keran sector in frontier district of Kupwara   since Wednesday. 
 “Two militants were killed on Wednesday; one on Thursday and five yesterday,” the BGS said, adding that the operation was over but the searches were on.
 “We have learnt that a group of seven to eight militants returned after they were wounded in the firing,” the BGS added.
 He the slain militants belonged to Lashkar-e-Toiba, Hizb-ul-Mujahideen and Harkat-ul-Mujahideen.
 Terming the operation as a “major success”, he said not a single trooper was wounded in the 3-day encounter in the high altitude-rugged terrain under 12-15 feet snow.
 “We have successfully defeated the first infiltration attempt of this year. We are well prepared and ready to foil any other infiltration bids in future also,” he said.
 The officer said that militants were heavily armed, well equipped as they had the latest communication and navigation equipment “Which suggested that they were supported by intelligence and government agencies from across the Line of Control.”
 “They use Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and maps to infiltrate into the Valley,” he added.

Lastupdate on : Sun, 28 Mar 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sun, 28 Mar 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Mon, 29 Mar 2010 00:00:00 IST