HANDWARA: An unidentified militant was killed in a gunbattle with security forces in north Kashmirs Kupwara today, the seventh ultra to be killed in three encounters in the district since yesterday.
The fresh encounter broke out in Petha Wadar forest area of Handwara this morning, an army official said.
A search operation was launched by a joint team of police and army after receiving specific inputs about the presence of militants in the area. The hiding militants fired upon them, triggering an encounter in which the militant was killed.
He said the operation was on when reports last came in.
Militants Were Affiliated To Let: Army
Srinagar: The militants, who were killed in two separate encounters in Kupwara yesterday were affiliated to Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the army today claimed.
“About 200 to 220 militants are active in Kashmir valley.
Among them, about 100 are local militants and rest are foreigners,” Commander Eight sector Rashtriya Rifles Brigadier Rajeev Puri said while talking about the successful operations in Kupwara.
He said the number of militants in south and north Kashmir varies as they do not have boundaries.
Playing down the use of new app “Calculator” by militants to keep in touch with their handlers in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir without being detected by Army’s technical surveillance, the Army officer said “such things keep happening between the security forces and the miltants”.
“Earlier, they were using radio sets and we used to intercept it. They come out with a new thing and we counter it,” he said.
Giving credit to human intelligence for successful anti-militancy operations, he said “our human intelligence is very strong. If they succeed in level one (infiltrating from across the LoC), we get them at level two and eliminate them.”
Talking about the two successful operations which left six militants dead in Kupwara district yesterday, the army officer said “all the six were affiliated to Pakistan-based LeT outfit”.
“The first operation started at Khailia Doban in the north of Lolab valley at around 9 AM and resulted in the death of three Pakistani militants of LeT group. The operation ended at 1.30 PM,” he said.
“A large quantity of medicines and eatables, carrying Pakistan-made mark, were recovered from the slain militants.
Soon after the first operation was over, a second operation took place in Drugmulla’s Waterkhai area and three more LeT militants were killed,” the officer said.
A huge cache of arms and explosives were seized from both the operations, he said, adding the seizure included six AK 47 rifles, maps, Under Barrel Grenade Launchers, grenades, radio sets, night vision devices, compass and Ground Positioning System (GPS).
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