Army foils infiltration bid along LoC in Rajouri

An infiltration bid by a group of five militants was on Sunday foiled by the Army which launched a massive search operation along the Line of Control (LoC) in Rajouri sector of Jammu and Kashmir.

‘A suspected move of a group of four-five persons was detected by alert army troops along the LoC at Hamirpur area, Balakote sector of Bhimber Gali Brigade, Rajouri at early hours on Sunday,’ PRO Defence S N Acharya said.

‘Immediately, the surrounding area was cordoned off. The infiltrating group was challenged by our troops,’ he said, adding that the men thereafter took cover in the bushes and opened fire on the troops.

The troops then fired back in the direction from where the movement had been observed, Acharya said, noting that the intermittent firing continued during the night. ‘The exchange of fire stopped at around 0600 hours on Sunday.

Intruders probably retreated taking advantage of the darkness, thick vegetation and ground topography,’ the PRO said. Search operation was launched at day-break to detect any injured person, or any left over stores in the vicinity, he said, maintaining that the search operation was still in progress. However, there bad weather conditions were coming in the way of the operation, an Army officer said.  As per the reports, there was a movement of the group of militants towards Balakote forward belt of Mendhar sector during pre-dawn hours.

Troops of 22 Rajput Rifles, 49 Rashtriya Rifles are engaged in the search operation at the Balakote sector. ‘Searches are going...there was some suspicious activity observed in the night. There was subsequent firing in Balakote...,’ DIG (Rajouri-Poonch range) Danish Rana said.