| No fresh contact with militants, operation continues in forests | | | Early Times Report
Srinagar, May 12: Though there was no fresh contact with militants for the past 24 hours, a massive search operation was going on in the dense forest in the frontier district of Kupwara, where a soldier had lost his life so far. Official sources said on a tip-off security forces and state police launched a joint operation in Watsar Rajwara forest, Handwara, in the frontier district of Kupwara on May 10 night. However, entire forest area remained under tight cordon, they said. ''There was a brief exchange of fire between the militants holed up in the forest and security forces initially,'' they said adding there was no report of any casualty in the fire fight.
However, a soldier Om Veer Singh of 21 Rashitriya Rifles (RR) slipped and died after he fell into deep gorge when troops were returning from the woods.
Additional security forces have already been rushed from nearby camps to foil any attempt by holed up militants to escape. However, there was no fresh contact with militants, since brief encounter on May 10 night, they said. A soldier was killed last week when alert troops foiled an infiltration attempt from across the border in Keran sector while another soldier died after he slipped from a top near the Line of Control (LoC), while repairing the border bending, damaged due to snow in winter. A large number of trained militants are waiting at launch pads across the LoC in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK) to sneak into this side as snow on the upper reaches had started melting.
However, security forces, guarding the LoC, have already intensified foot and night patrolling to foil any infiltration bid, they said. |
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