Days after attack on IAF convoy, 'contact' established with perpetrators in J&K’s Poonch

Srinagar: Almost a week after the security forces launched a massive operation against the separatist militants involved in a sneak attack on an Indian Air Force (IAF) convoy in Jammu and Kashmir’s frontier Poonch district ‘contact’ has been established with the perpetrators, officials said on Friday.

They said an exchange of fire took place between the militants and the security forces in the Sinai Top area of Poonch. “The terrorists who have been encircled by the security forces are believed to be the same group that had targeted the IAF convoy last Saturday”, the officials said.

Five IAF personnel were injured in the May 4 sneak attack at a Stallion 4x4 and another logistic vehicle of the IAF in Poonch’s Shahsitar area. They were quickly airlifted to the Army’s New Command Hospital in the garrison town of Udhampur where one of them Corporal Vikky Pahade succumbed to his injuries. The officials had said that after targeting the IAF convoy, the terrorists fled into the nearby woods.

Though the local unit of the Army’s Rashtriya Rifles had laid siege to the area immediately after the attack, the operation to flush out the militants from the woods was intensified with the induction of more troops from the Army’s special forces including the PARA commandos the next day.

Over the past week, the Army has flown its helicopters over the Shahsitar, Gursai, Sanai Top, Sheendara Top and Jarra Wali Gali and neighbouring areas in the Surankote sub-division of Poonch for the aerial monitoring and also pressed sniffer dog squads into service to track down the militants. The Army and the J&K police are also using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) for surveillance.

The officials had said that two to three Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorists were believed to have carried out the attack. On May 6, the security forces unveiled sketches of what they said are two hardcore Pakistani terrorists involved in the attack. They also announced a reward of ₹ 20 lakhs for any information that helps in the arrest of the suspected terrorists. They said that anyone who will give “fruitful and reliable information” about the whereabouts of these terrorists leading to their arrest will be rewarded and identity will be kept secret. The police had detained about two dozen people for questioning but many of them have been released since, the police sources said. End it