Two infiltrators gunned down by Army on LoC

SRINAGAR: The Army said on Thursday that it killed two militants in a gun fight raging in the Keran sector of Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir’s northwestern Kupwara district.

The Army said that a group of heavily armed militants breached the LoC and sneaked into the Keran sector, but the alert troops challenged them and quickly engaged them in a gun fight which continued till reports last came in.

The Army’s Srinagar-based 15 Corps-also called Chinar Corps- in a post on ‘X’ said, “Operation Ranbir, Keran, Kupwara: An infiltration attempt has been successfully prevented with the elimination of two terrorists today on LoC in Keran Sector, Kupwara. Anti Infiltration Operations are continuing”.

The defence sources in Srinagar said that the Army had already received credible input about the planned infiltration by Pakistan-trained militants. The sources said that the corpses of the slain infiltrators are lying at the encounter site, and these will be retrieved after the operation is over.

On July 14, the Army claimed killing three infiltrating militants in a fierce gun battle in the Keran sector. The Army had said that all the slain men were ‘foreign terrorists’ who were ‘neutralised’ after their breaching the fence along the de facto border and sneaking into J&K from PoJK.

Meanwhile, two soldiers were injured in a fresh gun fight with militants near Zadan Batta village of Kastigarh area of J&K's eastern Doda district overnight, officials said on Thursday.

The injured were evacuated to Doda's Government -run Medical College Hospital. “They received minor injuries, and their condition is stable,” the police said.

The police and Army sources said that the encounter took place at around 2 am when militants opened fire on a temporary security camp established in a government school for the ongoing search operations in the hilly district.

The sources said security forces retaliated and the exchange of fire between the two sides continued for more than an hour.

Local news agency KNO quoted an unnamed official as saying, "The terrorists managed to flee from the cordon again while search operation has been launched in other areas of Kastigarh and Dessa to trace them."

On the night of July 16, two groups of militants and the Village Defence Guards (VDGs) had exchanged fire briefly in Kalaan Bhata and Panchan Bhata areas of the Dessa area of Doda. No casualties were reported in the clash.

Soon after the incidents, police reinforcements were rushed to these areas which with the help of Army columns launched cordon-and-search operations but there was no trace of militants, the police sources had said.

On July 15 night, Army Captain Brijesh Thapa and three other soldiers were critically injured in a gun fight with militants in the Uran Baggi Forest area of Doda. Captain Thapa, Naik D. Rajesh and sepoys Bijendra and Ajay succumbed to their injuries later.

A massive search operation launched jointly by the Army, the J&K police and the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) in a vast area of Doda soon after the clash continued Thursday. Dozens of VDGs, armed with .303 rifles, are helping security forces in hunting down the assailants who ran into thick woods after the clash.

Several parts of the Jammu region including Doda have witnessed spurt in terror violence in the recent weeks.

On July 9, militants ambushed a joint patrol of the Army and the J&K police Doda’s Goli-gadi forest area. However, the militants managed to escape after a brief exchange between the two sides.

On June 9, a group of militants had opened fire on a bus while it on its way to Katra, the basecamp of the Mata Vaishno Devi shrine, from Shiv Khori, a cave-shrine devoted to Lord Shiva in the Sangar village of the Pouni area of J&K's Reasi district.

Seven pilgrims including two children and the driver and conductor of the ill-fated bus were killed and 41 oher passengers injured as the driver lost balance following the bus came under terror attack and it fell into a deep gorge at Kanda near the Teryath village of the Poni area.

On June 12, A jawan of the SOG was injured in a gunfight with militants at Tanta, a remote area of the Gandoh-Bhalessa belt of the Doda district. End it

On June 11, a group of three to four militants targeted a joint check-post of the J&K police and the Army in the district’s Chattergalla area, injuring five soldiers and a SPO.

On June 12-14, two militants and a CRPF jawan were killed in a gunfight during a CASO in the Hiranagar area of Kathua district.

On June 26, the security forces claimed killing three foreign terrorists in a day-long operation at Lagor in the Sinoo area of Doda’s Gandoh region.

Over 70 people, including 52 security personnel — mostly from the Army — have been killed in terror-related incidents in the Jammu region since 2021. Most of the casualties were from Rajouri and Poonch districts where 54 terrorists were also eliminated, the officials said.

Three terrorists were also killed in Reasi district and two others in Kathua district, they added.