news details |
|
|
| 3 Pak infiltrators killed by troops in 10 hr long gunbattle at Arnia | | 3 army personnel, 4 civilians also lose lives in exchange of fire | | Bhart Bhushan
Early Times Report
JAMMU, Nov 27: All knew on this side of the border that the peaceful conduct of first phase of J&K polls was not a happy situation for Pakistan. Desperate to cause violence in the remaining four phases of elections to highlight the Kashmir issue, Pak-based militants on Wednesday night and early this morning made two infiltration attempts from across the Line of Control (LoC) in Balakote sub-sector of Poonch and one from across the International Border (IB) in Arnia sub-sector of Jammu. While they failed to sneak into Balakote, four militants, who were in army fatigues, stealthily entered India from Pindi area of Arnia in the wee hours of this morning and took position in two abandoned army bunkers in the periphery of border Kathar village, over 2.5 km inside the border, and killed four civilians and three army personnel, including a junior commissioned officer (JCO), besides wounding four others.
Three of the four militants, all suspected to be Pakistani nationals, were shot dead by army troops in nearly a 10-hour long gunbattle.
This is the second attack carried out by the Pak-based militants after infiltrating into the Indian territory in the past over an year. In the earlier incident, that was carried out on September 26, 2013, three militants, who had attacked a police station at Hiranagar in Kathua and an army unit at Samba, were shot dead by army troops. In these twin attacks, 10 persons, including Lt Col Bikramjit Singh, were killed.
There is one similarity in both these attacks. These have been carried out on Thursday. The 2013 attack was carried out barely three days ahead of a meeting between then prime minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharief in New York on September 29 on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
The today's attack comes on the day when Narendra Modi and Pakistani premier Nawaz Sharif shook hands and met briefly during the retreat at SAARC, and a day after the prime minister, at the SAARC nations meeting in Kathmandu, called for a pledge to unitedly combat terror reminding them of the 26/11 Mumbai attack.
The four heavily armed militants infiltrated from Pindi area in the wee hours of this morning. They were felt to have entered India when Pakistan fired two mortars, targeting forward Indian posts and Kathar village. In the explosion of one mortar, four-year-old daughter of Manisha was wounded. The other exploded in the noman's land without causing any harm to life and property of the people.
After sneaking into the Indian territory, they also breached the barbed wire fencing without getting noticed by BSF personnel. BSF, however, said the militants had not infiltrated as the fencing was found intact on checking.
Tarsem Lal, a local, said it was at about 8.30 am when he found the four militants, who were dressed in army uniforms, sitting near a culvert in the Kathar periphery. An army checking point is hardly at a distance of 50 yards from the culvert towards Arnia village.
"They looked like army jawans. I was working in my field close to the culvert but they did not cause me any harm. I also took a matchbox from them to burn dry grass in the field," he added.
While they sat near the culvert, a school vehicle happened to pass from there. They stopped it but let it go without causing any harm to the driver. Had the students been travelling in it, they would have hijacked it and then created a scene.
A few minutes later, a Maruti car appeared on the scene. Kamal Kishore, son of Sain Dass of Bari Brahmana, and Vijay Kumar of Batala were travelling in it. Vijay was accompanying Kishore to settle the marriage dispute of a relative in the village.
Official sources said the militants killed Vijay on the spot and took Kishore hostage. Hearing the gunshots, Tarsem fled the spot unhurt. They then targeted a tractor, which was being driven by Rakesh Kumar. His friend Vikas Sabbarwal was sitting beside him on the tractor. While they fired at Sabbarwal, Rakesh was taken hostage by them. Sabbarwal later died on way to hospital.
Sources said after the troops reached the spot from a nearby location and challenged the militants, they swiftly moved to the nearby abandoned bunkers of army and took position in two of them and opened fire which was returned.
In the exchange of fire that ensued, JCO Kulvinder Singh and two other army personnel lost their lives while four others survived with critical injuries. Two of them were identified as Satpal and Rakesh Kumar. The injured were hospitalised. At least two of the militants were said to have been shot dead by the troops after about 4-5 hours of the gunbattle. When the others kept the forces engaged in an intermittent exchange of fire, they pressed two to three tanks into service and blew up both the bunkers, killing one of them. There was also no chance of survival of both Kishore and Rakesh, who were taken hostage by the militants, sources said, adding that the army was yet to start the process of retrieving bodies from the bunker till late tonight.
The escaped militant was said to be hiding in the area. The troops had plugged all his escape routes and he was likely to be killed, the sources added.
As initial reports emerging from the encounter site suggested that there were six to eight militants, army had asked all Kathar residents to move out of the area. A massive combing operation was then carried out in the village by the jawans but they could not find any trace of more militants there. The villagers were later allowed to return homes.
Soon after the gunfight bagan at Kathar, security was stepped up in Jammu city and its peripheral areas too. Apart from police, army jawans were also seen checking vehicles and frisking pedestrians outside their installations on Kunjwani-Bypass road.
Vigil was further stepped up all along the IB and border residents had been asked to keep an eye on any suspicious movement in their villages, the sources added.
The intrusion bid was supported by the Pak border troops who fired mortars at Kathar and resorted to small arms fire to provide cover to the militants.
The initial alarm about the militants was raised by the villagers. Significantly, nearly a month ago, Arnia had become the target of unprecedented shelling by the Pakistani Rangers which had continued for over a fortnight, leading to migration of a large number of villagers from their native places.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
STOCK UPDATE |
|
|
 |
| BSE
Sensex |
 |
| NSE
Nifty |
|
|
| |
CRICKET UPDATE |
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
