Terrorist killed by security forces in J&K's Uri (Lead)

Srinagar, Oct 20 (IANS) One terrorist was killed on Sunday in the joint operation launched by the security forces along the line of control (LoC) in J&K’s Uri sector.

Army’s Srinagar-headquartered Chinar Corps said that the joint team neutralised one heavily armed militant and recovered 01 AK Rifle, 02 AK Magazines, 57 AK rounds, 02 Pistols, 03 Pistol Magazines and other war-like stores from the site.

“The search in the area is underway and the operation is in progress,” Chinar Corps said.

Earlier, the army said that based on intelligence inputs regarding likely infiltration bid, a joint anti-infiltration operation was launched along LoC in Uri.

“Alert troops spotted suspicious activity and challenged, which resulted in terrorists opening indiscriminate fire. Vigilant troops responded with effective fire,” the army said.

An official said that terrorists based in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK) have been trying to infiltrate J&K to disturb the peace after people actively participated in the Lok Sabha and Assembly election which ended without any attack to disrupt the democratic process.

In recent months, the terrorists especially hardcore foreign mercenaries have carried out several hit-and-run attacks on the army, other security forces and civilians in hilly districts of the Jammu division including Poonch, Rajouri, Doda, Kathua, Udhampur and Reasi districts.

Over 4000 trained commandos drawn from the elite Para commando force and those trained in mountain warfare have been deployed in the densely forested areas of these districts to prevent the terrorists from carrying out ambush attacks and then hiding in the difficult forest areas.

In addition to the deployment of the army and the CRPF in these mountainous districts, police have also issued automatic weapons to the village defence committees (VDCs).

The VDCs are groups of civilians trained to handle weapons to protect their villages and families from terrorists in remote, inaccessible areas of the Jammu division.

Terrorists on Thursday killed a non-local Bihar resident identified as Ashok Chouhan in the Zainpora area of Valley’s Shopian district.

The official said that security forces have launched a manhunt to trace the assassins.

The attack was widely condemned including the L-G Manoj Sinha and the Chief Minister Omar Abdullah.

--IANS

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