STATE TIMES NEWS
Jammu: Two terrorists were killed and another was captured on Sunday in a gunfight with security forces in the higher reaches of Surankote in Poonch district, officials said.
The terrorists are believed to have infiltrated into this side from across the Line of Control (LoC) about three days back and were heading for south Kashmir’s Shopian district when they were intercepted in a snow-bound area along the Mughal Road in the afternoon, the officials said.
They said it was a joint group of Lashker-e-Toiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) terrorists and have been pushed into this side in an apparent attempt to disturb the ongoing district development council (DDC) elections which got a tremendous response from the people, causing frustration to Pakistan.
Pak’s another attempt to push terrorists: DGP
Jammu: After two terrorists were killed and another was captured in Poonch district on Sunday, Jammu and Kashmir Police chief Dilbag Singh said Pakistan made another attempt to push LeT and JeM terrorists into Kashmir to disturb the ongoing District Development Council (DDC) polls.
The Director General of Police (DGP) complimented the joint team of police and army that gunned down the two infiltrating Pakistani terrorists and captured another.
“Another attempt (was made) by Pakistan to send in LeT-JeM terrorists to Kashmir to disturb the ongoing democratic process of grassroots level elections,” Singh told PTI.
He said that it shows Pakistan’s desperation due to huge participation of people in the ongoing elections.
The DGP said that three days ago the group of three terrorists crossed over from Pakistan and were on their way to Shopian. “On an input they were being chased by police. Day before yesterday, (security) parties reached the spot but could not launch operation due to snowfall. Today afternoon another move was made…,” he said.
On November 19, four heavily armed terrorists were killed in an encounter with security forces at Nagrota when they were travelling to Kashmir in a truck with the aim of disrupting the DDC polls, police had said.
The terrorists had the backing of Pakistan and had infiltrated into Jammu and Kashmir for causing disturbances in the DDC elections that began on November 28.
The officials said police, assisted by the Army, launched a joint cordon and search operation in remote Chattapani-Dugran village after getting information about the presence of three suspected terrorists.
The terrorists were trapped in a snow-bound area and were asked to surrender but they refused and instead fired indiscriminately on the security forces in an attempt to break the cordon, they said, adding the security forces retaliated and killed two of the militants.
Another terrorist was captured alive during the gunfight, the officials said.
The slain terrorists have been identified as Sajid and Bilal . Two AK 47 Rifles , one UBGL, one Thuraya Satphone were recovered from their possession.
The officials said the group is believed to have infiltrated from the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) three days back and was on its way to Shopian district.
After getting information, they said, police along with the Army launched an operation and plugged all escape routes but the snowfall slowed down the chase.
With the improvement in the weather, the operation resumed this morning and a contact was established with the terrorists, who were offered to surrender but they declined and triggered a gunfight, the officials said.