3 Pak intrusion bids foiled
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Sept 1 — Indian troops stationed along the Line of Control in Rajouri and Poonch sectors of Jammu and Kashmir have foiled three attempts made by the Pakistani troops in the past two days to capture forward posts in the region.

The Pakistani troops attacked the Indian jawans on patrol duty along the LoC on the Indian side. They also attempted to capture posts at three places in the region. Apparently the Pakistanis also made another attempt to capture some areas in the Turtuk region of Kargil and suffered heavy casualties in the process.

As many as 19 Pakistani soldiers were killed by the Indian troops in fresh attempt by the Pakistanis to capture new areas in Indian territory. There was heavy exchange of fire with the intruders who took our jawans by surprise in at least two of the three places. Three Indian jawans were killed and seven were wounded in the fighting.

As per reports, bodies of five Pakistani intruders were in the custody of Indian Army. The intruders were in Pakistani army fatigues. The Indian troops also recovered an RPG and four AK rifles from the intruders.

Reports here said the Pakistani attempts came yesterday and today in Kachrial in Palanwala in the Akhnoor region, Hamirpur in Rajouri and Radha area in Naugam. While there was heavy firing at Kachrial before the Pakistani intruders made attempts to capture the posts, at Hamirpur and Radha, the Indian troops were taken by surprise by the Pakistanis.

Sources here said the Pakistanis had moved up along the LoC very stealthily and taken the Indian patrol parties by surprise. The Indian jawans immediately resorted to small and medium weapon firing to stave off the Pakistani attempts.

As per reports, this was the first occasion after the Kargil conflict that the Pakistanis had made a direct attack on the Indian patrol parties stationed along the LoC. This was also part of the fresh attempts being made by Pakistan to open up new areas of conflict in Jammu and Kashmir.

The Indian Army officially said here that in the past two days, Pakistan had made three attempts in the region which were foiled by the Indian troops. The Pakistanis attacked the tactically important protective patrol positions on the Indian side of LoC.

These positions were deployed just ahead of the main defences to provide the tactical depth, the Army said.