| Weapon shortage, militants desperate for a loot | | |
EARly times Report
Srinagar, Aug 30: Weapons shortage has forced militant outfits to plan a shoot and snatch attacks, another such attempt was witnessed near Pantha Chowk late last night, 3 militants on a motorbike fired upon a CRPF Naka party, the attack met with swift joint counter ops by police and CRPF, area was cordoned off and following a trail, militants were cornered, in a night-long gunfight all three militants were killed and arms recovered, police Asi Babu Ram was also killed in the exchange of fire, "It was a shoot and run attempt, the intent of the bike-borne militants were to cause casualty and take away weapons, but alert forces jawans foiled the attempt, and we chased them, they were trapped and neutralized," said a senior CRPF officer who was part of the operation.
Militant outfits are short on weaponry, they don't have any arms reserve to give weapons to the new recruits, thus in these attacks and several other recent ones there is a desperation to snatch weapons from forces personnel, in most of the recent attacks on forces militants have taken away their weapons, the recent instance was seen in Handwara were three forces jawans were killed in an ambush, one AK-47 rifle was also taken away, however, again swift counter ops ensured militants who carried out this attack were killed and weapon snatched away from a CRPF jawan was also recovered.
The larger picture has seen traditional weapons supply lines from across the border dry up due to a strong, multi tired anti-infiltration grid of the army, while infiltration is a reality but big weapon consignments are difficult to send, whatever supplies are coming are body attached with infiltrating militants and those are not enough to arm new recruits which has now forced new innovative attempts to smuggle in arms including use of drones to drop supplies many of whom have been either destroyed or recovered on or near the LoC by army and BSF.
A senior police officer confirmed to news agency that they anticipate a bigger weapon loot attempt from militants, "They are desperate, we have brought new sops and drills for our guard and sentry post positions especially as such locations have seen weapons taken away in big numbers in the past, we won't allow them to succeed this time around".
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