Combing op continues in Hafruda forest

Majid Jahangir

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Tribune News Service

Srinagar, October 6

For the second day, hundreds of soldiers helped by para-commandos continued a massive combing operation in the dense Hafruda forest in north Kashmir, where four Army men were killed Sunday night.

Defence sources said additional units of the Army’s counter-insurgency battalions were inducted to carry out searches and trace the group of militants, believed to be between three and five in number, who were involved in the killing of four soldiers of 6 Rashtriya Rifles battalion.

“During the last 36 hours, there has been no fresh contact with militants in the area,” said a defence official. “The operation to trace the militants is going on and searches are being carried out,” he added.

The Hafruda forest in Kupwara district has been the scene of deadly firefights in the past, in which the Army has suffered great losses.

On September, 3 an elite para-commando of the Army was killed in a gunfight in the forest area, in which four militants were also killed.

The sources said the militants, after infiltrating through Kupwara sector, were always keen to reach the Hafruda forest, a known reception area for infiltrating militants.

They said the forest was being used as a base by both local and foreign militants infiltrating through Kupwara. The vast forest area is close to Rajwar and Ramhall belts in Kupwara, they said.

On Sunday, a joint operation by the Army and police was launched on information regarding presence of some militants in the Hafruda forest. Four soldiers who were part of an advance party were killed.

The Army today paid tributes with full military honours to the slain soldiers -- Sepoy Surinder Singh of 6 Sikh from Ludhiana, Naik Gurdev of 5 Sikh from Amritsar, Sepoy Surendra of 266 Field Regiment from Alwar and Lance Naik Botta Satyam of 11 Field Regiment from Andhra Pradesh.