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| Infiltrators escape from nursery, footprints lead towards IB | | Rucksack containing fresh-made roasted chicken, chapatis, other eatables and explosives recovered | |
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Apr 20: Much to the surprise of security agencies, the two infiltrators, who were Monday night holed up in a forest nursery in the border Hariachak village of Rajbagh in Kathua, made good their escape without being seen by anyone.
Police and army personnel continued their cordon of the nursery whole Monday night, but when they combed the thickly-forested nursery this morning, there was no trace of the infiltrators.
Marks left by their feet on the wet village land led police and army ersonnel up to the nearby Ujh nullah and then disappeared, giving strength to speculations that they either followed the nullah route to exfiltrate or were still in the Indian territory and had taken the water route to hoodwink security agencies.
Also, the dog squad, which was pressed into service in the morning, followed the footprints up to the nullah waters only.Police sources said while combing the nursery, police recovered a rucksack left behind by the escaped infiltrators. It contained a sophisticated wire cutter, two detonators, three water bottles, a multi-utility cutter, a China-made floater (which protects a swimmer from drowning), fresh-made roasted chicken, 16 chapatis, Pak-made chocklates, multi-vitamin capsules, dates, a first-aid kit, anti-septic lotion, a lighter and other items of daily use.
Quoting intelligence inputs, sources said the two militants belonged to the pan-Islamic Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) outfit.Not two, but four to five militants had infiltrated into India from Simble Spol area, which adjoined Sukhpur border outpost in Gurdaspur, Punjab.
While a guide took three to a different route, the other two lost way and reached Hariachak in J&K's Kathua district. Quoting wireless intercepts, sources said it was confirmed that a group of four to five militants had infiltrated from Simble Spol, about 6 km from Hariachak.
The two militants, supporting long beards, kept hiding in a field at Hariachak the whole day on Monday. In the field, they also held Balkari, an elderly man, hostage.
Balkari had later tactfully escaped from their clutches and narrated the whole incident to village sarpanch's son, who in turn had alerted police and army.
The first contact was established with militants at about 6.55 pm Monday when they had fired at a police party. In retaliatory fire, one militant was wounded.
When more police personnel and army troops reached the spot, the two infiltrators had hidden themselves in the nearby forest nursery.Troops had zeroed in on the nursery, plugging all escape routes, but to their surprise the ultras were found missing from the area this morning.
SSP, Kathua, Gareeb Dass said more police and army personnel had reached Hariachak and the "seek and destroy" operation launched to hunt down the infiltrators was continuing.He said police had also mobilised its sources to find out the whereabouts of the escaped militants.
He said a meeting of local sarpanchs, panchs and other prominent villagers was also held today in which they were requested to contact police or army in case they spotted suspicious persons in the area.
He said vigil was also stepped up on the Jammu-Pathankote National Highway and all vehicles plying on it were being properly checked. Additional police nakas were also laid on the highway and on the roads leading out of Hariachak, he added.
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