Army commanders review operation in Keran

The Indian Army’s Northern Command chief on Sunday visited the area along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kupwara district where troops have been carrying out an operation against a heavily-armed band of infiltrating guerrillas for the last 13 days.

Northern Command chief Lt Gen Sanjiv Chachra and Srinagar-based 15 Corps commander Lt.Gen. Gurmit Singh ‘have visited the area to review the situation on ground’, a defence spokesman said here.

The two commanders appreciated the ‘high levels of professionalism and military acumen displayed by our troops in carrying out operations under extremely challenging weather and terrain conditions’, he said.

Giving details of ongoing operation, the spokesman said there were ‘specific intelligence inputs of likely infiltration by terrorists in Keran sector of Kupwara’. 

‘Since then, there have been four desperate attempts of infiltration in this sector which started on 23 September wherein one terrorist was killed in the area of Lashdat Nar and a huge quantity of arms, ammunition and war-like stores recovered.’

‘Subsequently, there was a massive infiltration attempt in the area of Shalabhato, in which 30-40 terrorists contacted the anti-infiltration fence near the LoC at multiple points, in order to get across.’

‘Heavy exchange of fire thereafter has taken place over several days. An effective cordon is in place, with complete control and domination in the area,’ he said.