North Kashmir: Army on Tuesday said a 19-year- old militant was captured, another was killed yesterday evening in a massive counter-insurgency operation on the Line of Control in Baramulla’s Uri and seven militants have been killed in the last seven days.
“The surrendered terrorist in custody identified himself as Ali Babar Patra of Pakistan’s Punjab. He is a member of the LeT and was trained for 3 weeks course at Khyber camp Muzaffarabad in 2019,” Major General Virendra Vats said.
“The movement of such a large group of people can’t take place without the complicity of the Pakistan army deployed on the other side. There have been movements at launch pads across the LOC, said Major Vats.
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The detention yesterday was part of India’s largest counter-insurgency operation along the LoC since the February ceasefire with Pakistan.
Several operations have been underway in the Uri and Rampur areas since 18 September, when the army foiled three infiltration attempts discovered while patrolling.
Reportedly, four army men were also injured during operations in the last three days.
“This (second) operation started on 18 of September night that is when our patrol along the Line of Control detected an infiltration movement. We examined, this infiltration group was of six persons,” he said as per a local news agency, Global News Service (GNS).
He added: “When the encounter started, two of infiltrators had come across the fence while four were on the other side of fence. These four (militants) who were on the Pakistani side, they took advantage of the dense foliage and darkness and retreated towards Pakistani side.”
He said the two militants sneaked into this side of the fence.
“Once we realized all this, additional forces were mobilized to cordon these (militants). Because this area has lot of civilian population, we had to exercise restraint to avoid any collateral damage. All this happened on the night of 18 September.”
“Finally our trooped honed down on these (militants) who were holed up in a nallah on the evening of 25 September. Thereafter an encounter ensued and one of the (militants) was neutralized on morning of September 26. His accomplice, pleaded to spare his life. There was lot of shouting,” he said, adding, “As is the ethos and value system of Indian army, we do not use force against any unarmed person so due precaution was taken and he was taken into custody.”
This is the first instance in recent years that a Pakistani militant has been apprehended alive while attempting to enter India. This was the third attempt at infiltration in the last week and seven AK-series weapons, nine pistols and revolvers, and more than 80 grenades, as well as Indian and Pakistani currency, were confiscated.
