The security forces on Thursday said they foiled a major attack with the killing of four militants on the Jammu-Srinagar national highway at Ban Toll Plaza in Nagrota during early morning hours.
“We had intelligence about possible infiltration and militants were looking to infiltrate to carry out an attack especially in view of the District Development Council (DDC) election. Security forces in good numbers consisting of CRPF and J&K Police were deployed in good numbers at all the nakas,” said Inspector General of Police (IGP) Jammu, Mukesh Singh.
“Today at about 5 am during checking at Ban Toll Plaza, a truck bearing registration number JK01AL-1055 was stopped but the driver fled.”
“The alert security force personnel started checking the truck, during which the militants hiding in the truck opened fire on the security forces with automatic weapons. It triggered a fiery encounter between the militants and the security forces which lasted for three hours,” said the IGP. “The truck was loaded with rice and its destination was somewhere in Kashmir,” he said.
He said that two police men were wounded and gradually more army and other security forces joined the operation. The injured cops were evacuated from the encounter site and shifted to the Govt Medical College and Hospital at Bakshi Nagar.
The encounter ended with the killing of all four militants, seemed to have crossed freshly to carry out a suicide attack. The quantity of weapons and the type of medicines indicates fresh infiltration from the International Border. The medicines with Pakistani marking show Pakistani origin of militants,” he said.
He said that 11 AK rifles with 24 magazines, 3 pistols, 29 grenades, 6 UBGL grenades, mobile phones, compass, pouches, bags, wires and other ammunition has been seized from the slain militants, while the driver of the truck was still at large.
In recent years, he said, it was one of the biggest recoveries made by the security forces.
“Every slain militant had three AK rifles and one small weapon (pistol) which shows that they were suicide attackers. The militants were being transported in the truck to somewhere in Kashmir Valley from Jammu. We are investigating all the aspects,” said the IGP.
In this connection, a case under FIR Number 426 of 202 under section 307, 120b, 121, 122, 123 and 7/25/27 Arms Act 16/18 ULA has been registered at Police Station Nagrota.
The truck in which the militants were hiding caught fire during the gunfight.
An alert has been sounded across Jammu and naka checking has been increased whereas surprise checking has also started in many areas of Jammu and border areas.
Advisor to LG, RR Bhatnagar, visited the GMC Jammu to see the two injured police men.
The Jammu-Srinagar highway was opened for vehicular traffic after over 7 hours at around 12 noon.