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2 militants, counter-insurgent killed in Kashmir

Two militants and a counter-insurgent were killed while the Jammu and Kashmir Special Operations Group arrested a terrorist in the valley in the past 24 hours.

Militants attacked a search party of security forces at Kokernag in the south Kashmir district of Anantnag last evening. The forces immediately took up positions and returned the fire, killing two of them. Some arms and ammunition were recovered from them.

Some terrorists shot dead a counter-insurgent Ghulam Rasool Gadroo at Ganderbal on the outskirts of Srinagar last evening. Terrorists also shot at and wounded a woman in downtown Srinagar this morning.

The SOG arrested a terrorist at Soura late last evening and seized some arms and ammunition from him.

According to Asia Defence News International, the New Year has been disastrous for Pakistan-trained terrorists in Kashmir. At least 36 of them, including some top-ranking ones, have been killed or captured since January 1.

The security forces have also recovered large-calibre long-range weapons in raids on several militant hideouts in the past week.

Among those captured are the 'chief co-ordinator' of the Harkat-ul-Jihad-e-Eslami and 'district commanders' of Al-Umar and Hizbul Mujahideen.

The sustained pressure of cordon-and-search operations all over the state has resulted in 12 terrorists being killed and 24 captured, including the dozen that surrendered in Doda with their weapons.

Of the dead, four were killed in Baramulla, two each in Rajouri and Udhampur, and one each in Doda, Kupwara, Badgam and Anantnag.

In Kupwara, the security forces seized a large-calibre rocket launcher, a mortar and 40 bombs, three rocket-propelled grenade launchers with 80 grenades, 23 hand grenades, 20 rifle grenades, 25 remote-control devices, 15kg of explosives, one universal machine-gun, and 5,000 rounds of ammunition, 1 AK-47 rifle, and two remote-control devices. Large amounts of food and clothing indicated an intention to use the hideout as a base for operations in the surrounding villages.

The Rajouri seizure included one machine-gun, four Kalashnikov rifles, four rocket-propelled grenades, 3kg of explosives, 51 detonators, seven improvised explosive devices, four time pencils, and 20 metres of cordex, all proving the existence of a bomb factory there.

The Jammu & Kashmir page

UNI

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