Srinagar, May 10: Army Thursday said that they have killed five militants in an encounter while foiling an infiltration bid in Uri Sector of north Kashmir’s Baramulla district. According to Army, this was the first infiltration bid that has been foiled this year.
Giving details of the gun-battle that reportedly lasted for 13 hours, General Officer Commanding (GOC) of Baramulla-based 19 Infantry Division, Major General Bipin Rawat, told Greater Kashmir that Army was having prior information that militants were readying to sneak in. “We were having the intelligence inputs and Army was ready to face any eventuality,” he said.
GOC Rawat said during the last night the soldiers of 34 Rashtriya Rifles witnessed movement of 5-6 suspected people in Maidian Chulan forests near Chulan village on Line of Control (LoC) in Uri Sector. “We asked them to thump, but they proved to be infiltrators as they opened heavy fire on troops,” he said adding that fire was retaliated and the exchange of fire continued for at least 13 hours.
The Army officer said additional reinforcement of 10 Sikh Light Infantry was sent to the area. “They also took part in the operation,” he said.
The Army General said that in the afternoon the gun-battle stopped and searches were carried out in the area. “The terrain was very difficult. During the searches we recovered four bodies with 4 AK assault rifles and other ammunition,” Rawat said adding that the body of the fifth militant has also been spotted. “He has fallen in a deep gorge and efforts are on to get that,” he said. About the identification of militants, Rawat said that police party from police station Uri was arriving on the spot and they will try to ascertain their identity.
GOC further said that this was the first infiltration bid that has been foiled in 2012. “We are alert here and this was the beginning. We will try our best not to allow any body to sneak in,” he said.
The Army, sources said, were using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) on the LOC to detect the movement of people. These UAVs, according to sources, are fitted with highly sophisticated gadgets including sensors and thermal imagers.
The Army personnel have also been provided with hand-held thermal imagers and night vision devices. “These gadgets were found to be highly effective in monitoring the movement of militants on and across the LoC,” sources said.
Station House Officer (SHO) police station Uri, Bashir Ahmad, who visited the spot told Greater Kashmir over telephone that they have been shown four bodies and Army was going to hand over them to police. “We are bringing them to Uri. Postmortem of the bodies would be conducted tomorrow,” he said and added that police would try to ascertain their identity.
The police officer said that the killed militants were in the age group of 25 to 30 years and were wearing black Khan Suits. “They look like foreigners,” the SHO said.
Army has said that there has been extensive damage to fencing on LoC during snowfall at points which have remained vital in infiltration during the last two decades of militancy. The points include Shamsabari Range, Machil Sector, Keran Sector in frontier district of Kupwara and some points in Gurez in Bandipora district and Uri Sector of Baramulla district.

Lastupdate on : Thu, 10 May 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Thu, 10 May 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Fri, 11 May 2012 00:00:00 IST