Three militants, civilian killed in Tangdhar gunfight

Majid Jahangir

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, November 25  

Three militants and a civilian were killed, while two soldiers, including an officer, sustained injuries in an ongoing firefight close to the Line of Control (LoC) in north Kashmir’s frontier Kupwara district.

The fierce gunfight that erupted on Wednesday morning between militants and the Army was still going on when reports last came in.

"Three militants have been killed in the gunfight so far and three AK rifles were recovered from the site," an Army spokesman said, adding that the operation was still going on.

A civilian, who was working as a generator operator inside the camp, was also killed in the gunfight, the spokesman added. 

According to sources, a group of three to four heavily armed militants attacked an Army post of 3/1 GR at Kulsuri Ridge in Tangdhar sector on Wednesday morning around 7 am using small arms and under-barrel grenade launchers, injuring two soldiers.

A Deputy Commander of the 104 Infantry Brigade also had a narrow escape. The Commander was injured as a bullet grazed his ear. He is being treated at a hospital and is said to be out of danger.

“After the initial gunfight, there was a lull for a brief time. The gunfight erupted again at around 8.30 am during which blasts were heard and oil dump inside the camp caught fire and many Army vehicles were damaged,” the sources said.

Special Forces were rushed to the area to flush out the militants.

It could not be immediately ascertained whether militants involved in the attack were part of any infiltrating group.

This is the second attack this year in Tangdhar sector. On May 31, four militants were killed who had crossed the LoC and were intercepted by soldiers near Bakhiyan village, close to the Army’s 104 Infantry Brigade headquarters.

Tangdhar sector is close to the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kupwara district and has been used as an infiltration route in the past.

Militant hideout busted in Poonch

Meanwhile, a militant hideout was busted by security forces in Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday night. Huge quantity of arms and explosive devices were recovered, a defence spokesman said today.

Acting on specific information, a joint team of the Army and police launched a search operation in general area of Salani in Poonch district yesterday and recovered war-like stores, the defence spokesman said.

The arms and ammunitions recovered from hideout include three IED cylinder (3 kg each), bottle-shaped IED 500 gms, two AK magazines, 112 rounds of AK, one Chinese grenade, 41 PIKA ammunition, one broken radio set, two Pakistan currency notes (50+10), one Telenor sim card, two IED trigger and two meter wire, he said.

Such recovery of IEDs, arms and ammunitions will definitely act as a big blow to nefarious designs of terrorists, the spokesman said. (With PTI inputs)