Militant killed in Uri: Army

Srinagar, Oct 20: A militant was killed on Sunday in the joint operation launched by the security forces along the Line of Control (LoC) in Uri.

Army’s Srinagar-headquartered Chinar Corps said that the joint team killed a heavily armed militant and recovered an AK Rifle, 2 AK Magazines, 57 AK rounds, 2 pistols, 3 pistol magazines, and other war-like stores from the site.

“The search in the area is underway and the operation is in progress,” Chinar Corps said.

Earlier, the Army said that based on intelligence inputs regarding a likely infiltration bid, a joint anti-infiltration operation was launched along LoC in Uri.

“Alert troops spotted suspicious activity and challenged, which resulted in terrorists opening indiscriminate fire. Vigilant troops responded with effective fire,” the Army said.

An official said that militants based in PoK had been trying to infiltrate J&K to disturb the peace after people actively participated in the Lok Sabha and J&K Assembly polls which ended without any attack to disrupt the democratic process.

In recent months, the militants, especially foreign mercenaries have carried out several hit-and-run attacks on the Army, other security forces and civilians in hilly districts of the Jammu division including Poonch and Rajouri in Pir Panjal, Doda in Chenab Valley, and Kathua, Udhampur, and Reasi districts.

Over 4000 trained commandos drawn from the elite Para Commando force and those trained in mountain warfare have been deployed in the densely forested areas of these districts to prevent the militants from carrying out ambush attacks and then hiding in the difficult forest areas.

In addition to the deployment of the Army and the paramilitary CRPF in these mountainous districts, the Police also issued automatic weapons to the Village Defence Committees (VDCs).

The VDCs are groups of civilians trained to handle weapons to protect their villages and families from militants in remote, inaccessible areas.

Militants on Thursday killed a non-local Bihar resident identified as Ashok Chouhan in the Zainpora area of south Kashmir’s Shopian district.

The official said that security forces have launched a manhunt to trace the assassins.

The attack was widely condemned including by Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha and Chief Minister Omar Abdullah.