SRINAGAR: At least seven infiltrators have been gunned down when the Indian Army on Thursday foiled multiple infiltration attempts by armed groups in Jammu and Kashmir, Northern Command of the Army said in a statement released on Twitter.
The security forces thwarted at least four attempts by the Pakistan army to infiltrate armed groups into Kashmir.
According to the statement, at least three terrorists were killed during an encounter in Nowgam sector and four were eliminated in the Machhil sector. Infiltration bids sponsored and facilitated by the Pakistan Army were also foiled in Uri and Gurez sectors.
In Gurez, terrorists trained by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence abandoned their positions and retreated into Pakistan-occupied territory, leaving behind their weapons and supplies.
Earlier, a jawan lost his life during an encounter with terrorists in J&K’s Nowgam sector. In a separate incident in Baramulla district, two Indian Army soldiers were injured.
Indian troops moved into the Doba Sardar area of the Baramulla-Uri sector near the Line of Control on receiving intelligence about the movement of five to six militants who had infiltrated from across the border.
When the militants opened fire on the troops, two of the soldiers were injured.
These infiltrators were being provided active support including heavy artillery cover by the Pakistan Army. . In its statement, the Indian Army said that it has foiled 22 infiltration attempts and killed 34 armed intruders in the current year.
Meanwhile, security forces launched a cordon and search operation (CASO) in south Kashmir’s Pahalgam an area which is a base camp for the annual Amarnath Yatra commencing later this month.
A cordon and search operation was launched this morning at Sheikh Mohalla Wularhama in Pahalgam area of Anantnag district following information about presence of militants in the area, a police official said.
He said the security forces fired some warning shots in the air to establish contact with the militants but there was no retaliation.
The operation concluded at 10:30 am without any positive results, the official said. He said during the withdrawal of the security forces from the area, some persons pelted stones upon them. They were chased away, the official said, adding no one was injured.
Pahalgam is one of the base camps for the annual Amarnath Yatra which is scheduled to begin on June 29. The other is Baltal near Sonamarg in central Kashmir s Ganderbal district.
Army deploys ‘through the wall’ radars in Kashmir
Anantnag: Aiming to detect terrorists who might be hiding in wall cavities or false ceilings, the Indian Army will now use ‘through the wall’ radar imaging during counter-insurgency operations in Kashmir Valley. A few such radar systems have already been imported by the Army, official sources said, explaining that the technology would help in more precise – and effective — anti-military operations. It would enable forces to get the pinpointed location of terrorists hiding inside homes in congested areas and also avoid civilian casualties. On more than one occasion, the Army and the Special Operations Group of Jammu and Kashmir Police have had to return without engaging with militants despite specific intelligence inputs. Local informers later conveyed that the terrorists were hiding in a specially created false ceiling or an underground cavity in the same house that had been raided, said a senior official involved in the anti-militancy drive.
This happened on July 8 last year as well when security forces gunned down Burhan Wani, poster-boy of the banned terror group Hizbul Mujahideen. The first time they tried to get him, they couldn’t locate any terrorist in the house in a village in Kokernag in south Kashmir despite precise intelligence tip-offs.
The commanding officer and his men, it is learnt, entered the house twice but were unable to find any terrorists who were hiding in a false ceiling. During the third round of searches, the hiding militants gave themselves away when they fired at the Army men. It was only after that that three men, including Wani, were killed, leading to unrest in the entire Valley.
Often, troops face hostile crowds when they are unable to locate a terrorist at a house notified by human intelligence as well as technically generated intelligence.
Given the many hits and misses, need was felt for ‘through-the-wall’ radars which would help troops function better during counter-insurgency operations especially in densely populated areas, sources said.
The radar is based on short electromagnetic waves generated by the ‘signatures’ of people hidden behind the wall or other concrete barriers.
It is useful for detecting small changes in electromagnetic waves induced by humans; this includes even micro-movements caused by breathing, an official explained.
The images on the radar will give army an upper hand in determining the position of hiding terrorists and their movements on real-time basis, he said.
Though the Army has imported only a few such radars, officials are hopeful that the number would go up once their utility was put to test.
Interestingly, the Electronics and Radar Development Establishment (LRDE), a wing of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), has been making attempts to build the radar indigenously. However, the product has not moved to the trial stage yet.
Named Divyachakshu (divine eye), the radar is designed to scan 25-30 cm wall. The project was started after 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks when commandos of the elite NSG unit were injured while clearing the Taj Mahal hotel.