Big haul of weapons near LoC
SRINAGAR, Aug 24 — Army troops claimed to have unearthed a militant arms dump near the Line of Control in Nowgam sector and seized a big haul of weapons and a pneumatic boat from the hide-out located in the inhospitable and treacherous terrain in the frontier district of Kupwara last evening, a Defence Ministry spokesman said today.

44 file papers in Jammu, Udhampur
JAMMU, Aug 24 — Fortyfour candidates filed their papers for the Jammu and Udhampur Lok Sabha seats as nominations for the elections on September 11 closed today.

Big haul of weapons near LoC

SRINAGAR, Aug 24 (PTI) — Army troops claimed to have unearthed a militant arms dump near the Line of Control (LoC) in Nowgam sector and seized a big haul of weapons and a pneumatic boat from the hide-out located in the inhospitable and treacherous terrain in the frontier district of Kupwara last evening, a Defence Ministry spokesman said today.

Besides the pneumatic boat, six disposable rocket launchers, 125 hand and rifle grenades, 10 gelatine pipe bombs, 10 IED switch boxes, 25 detonators, 2100 rounds of AK ammunition and 440 rounds of sniper rifle ammunition were seized from the militant dump, the spokesman told PTI.

He said based on intelligence inputs of likelihood of weapons and ammunition cache being located in Kakua in Nowgam sector, situated at the heights of 14,000 feet, a Gorkha Rifles patrol was asked to carry-out a search of the area.

Despite poor visibility due to low cloud base, the patrols kept the search on and spotted the cave with huge cache of arms, ammunition, explosives and military hardwares and equipment.

Terming the seizure, particularly devastating rocket launchers and the pneumatic boat as a "major breakthrough" the spokesman said the weapons were dumped in the cave by the militants to smuggle the material into the valley to carry-out subversive activities.

Meanwhile, two persons, including an employee of the Information Department received splinter injuries as Pakistani troops resorted to unprovoked shelling on civilian areas in Kargil for the major part of the day yesterday.

The unprovoked shelling from across the border continued from 1100 hours to 1800 hours, causing panic in the town and forcing shopkeepers to pull down their shutters, the spokesman said.

He said few residential houses in Lankor Mohalla and Goma suffered damages as a result of the shelling.

In another incident one villager was killed when Pakistani troops opened heavy fire along international border in R.S. Pura sub-sector of Jammu frontier last night.

The sources said Pakistani rangers resorted to unprovoked and heavy firing along the international border in Pindi, Suchetgarh, Abdullian, Sia, S.H. Way, Pittal, Phagwari, Jabwal, Nikwal and Chaprial areas of Jammu.

In the firing, one villager identified as Kala Ram of Pindi died on the spot and five cattle heads were injured critically.

Two security jawans and a civilian were killed in different incidents of militancy in Doda district of Jammu region.

The militants ambushed a patrol party of Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) at Baddergari area in Gandoh tehsil of Doda last night, critically injuring ITBP head constable Badri Ram. Later, Ram died on his way to the hospital. The militants fled after the attack.

In another incident, a hand grenade exploded in the hand of Border Security Force (BSF) jawan killing him on spot at R.S. Pura last night. He was identified as Poplt Chilka of 102 battalion of BSF.

A village numberdar was abducted and killed by militants in Tamind area of Banihal last night.

Militants shot dead a ruling National Conference (NC) activist Ghulam Mohammad Khan alias Shalla, in his house at Tengpora locality of Nawakadal last night.

He was rushed to the hospital, where doctors declared him brought dead, the spokesman said, adding the gunmen left his house immediately after the shooting.

Al-Badr force outfit owned responsibility for his killing. "He was killed under operation 313", a statement of the outfit said.

This was the second major pre-poll strike by militants in Srinagar since Sunday. Militants made an abortive attempt on the life of NC MLA Mohammad Shafi Bhat at Aramwari-zero bridge in Srinagar on Sunday night.

Mr Bhat had gone to Aramwari to visit his sister after returning from campaigning for party leader Omar Abdullah, who is seeking re-election from Srinagar parliamentary constituency, and was fired at while he was coming out from his sister’s house. He escaped unhurt.

Krishnamurthy visits Kargil

KARGIL, Aug 24 (PTI) — Election Commissioner G.V.G. Krishnamurthy stressed the need for peaceful conduct of Lok Sabha elections in Jammu and Kashmir and said the commission was satisfied with the poll arrangements in the State.

Krishnamurthy, who is here on the second leg of his three-day assessment tour of the Kashmir valley, reviewed poll arrangements at an officers’ meeting today.

Kargil district Election Officer Shaleen Kabra briefed him about the arrangements made for the elections in the district falling under the Ladakh parliamentary seat.

He had a separate meeting with the representatives of political parties contesting elections from Ladakh.

The Election Commissioner directed the police in Kargil to provide security to the candidates as demanded by them.

He also visited soldiers who were injured during the Kargil conflict and undergoing treatment at the local Army hospital.

44 file papers in Jammu, Udhampur

JAMMU, Aug 24 (UNI) — Fortyfour candidates filed their papers for the Jammu and Udhampur Lok Sabha seats as nominations for the elections on September 11 closed today.

Fifteen nominations were received in Jammu and nine in Udhampur today. In all 27 candidates are in the fray in Jammu and 17 in Udhampur, pending scrutiny tomorrow and withdrawals till August 27.

Among the nominations received today were that of Congress candidate Madan Lal Sharma (Jammu) and National Conference’s Jagjeewan Lal (Udhampur).