Indian Army Foils Infiltration Bid In Kupwara, Two Terrorists Killed
"The operation began around 4 am near Hyder Post when troops from the Indian Army's 24 Grenadiers detected suspicious movement from Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK): A defence spokesman
SRINAGAR: Indian Army on Sunday said that it successfully neutralised two Islamic militants during an infiltration attempt along the Line of Control (LoC) in the Keran sector of Kashmir Valley’s northwestern Kupwara district.
A defence spokesman here said that the operation began around 4 am near Hyder Post when troops from the Indian Army's 24 Grenadiers detected suspicious movement from Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK). “Following an intense firefight, the troops foiled the infiltration bid,” he said.
The operation continued due to the suspected presence of three to four more militants near Balbir Post in the Pharkian Gali sub-sector, with reinforcements deployed to secure the rugged terrain. A defence source said that the slain militants' bodies could not be immediately retrieved due to ongoing firing and challenging topography.
The Keran sector, located 140 km from Srinagar and situated between 1,524 metres (5,000 feet) and 1,800 metres (5,905 feet) above sea level, is a notorious infiltration route. Infiltration attempts spike before winter due to reduced visibility. This is the second such bid foiled in the region this year. In July last year, the Army killed five infiltrating militants in two separate clashes in this sector, demonstrating the effectiveness of coordinated Army and J&K police patrols.
On Saturday, Inspector General of Border Security Force BSF) Kashmir Frontier, Ashok Yadav, had said that security forces are maintaining maximum vigilance along the LoC “to counter infiltration attempts by terrorists ahead of the winter season”.
In a separate incident, the BSF personnel initiated a search operation in the Ramgarh sector of Jammu’s Samba district on Sunday morning after detecting suspected drone activity near the International Border (IB) in village Karalian. The BSF is conducting a thorough search for any dropped payload or related activity, with increased surveillance in the area, an official said.
The LoC is primarily the responsibility of the Indian Army, which serves as the first line of defence against external threats and ceasefire violations, while the BSF acts as a second line of defence, supporting the Army in specific LoC scenarios. The BSF is primarily tasked to guard the 198-km stretch of the India-Pakistan border in Jammu region.
Being part of the 2,912 km India-Pakistan border from Gujarat to J&K, it starts at Paharpur in Kathua district and ends at Chicken’s Neck corridor in Akhnoor sector where the LOC begins. In India, this 198-km stretch of the borderline is called International Border (IB) but is known as ‘Working Boundary’ in Pakistan as it passes through a “disputed region”. In public parlance it is often referred to as ‘Sialkot-Jammu border’, however.