KL NEWS NETWORK
SRINAGAR
Armed forces have cordoned off the vast Kandi belt that falls between Kupwara’s Drugmulla and Nutnusa areas following reports that militants were hiding there.
Reports reaching Srinagar suggest that initial contact fire has established militant presence. The number of militants reportedly holed up inside are termed to be between two and three. The initial firing shots were heard in the forest stretch
The operation was launched early morning as troops moved quickly from various garrisons in the area and sealed the belt. They prevented vehicles from moving towards the area and sent the people coming out of the belt back home.
This operation is taking place during heightened tensions on LoC which is not far away from the spot that is currently under siege. On Thursday evening, militants crossed into Machil sector, allegedly under heavy shelling cover from across, and killed a trooper. Identified as 27 years old Mandeep Singh a resident of Antedi village in Haryana’s Kurukshetra, militants have mutilated his body.
The Army on Friday said Pakistan Army-backed infiltrators had mutilated the body of a soldier, who was killed in north Kashmir’s Kupwara district during a gunfight.
“In a despicable act, the terrorist mutilated the body of the soldier before fleeing into Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), supported by covering fire from Pakistani Army posts,” an Army spokesman in Srinagar told reporters. “This barbarism is a true reflection of the mindset of official and non-official organisations across the border. This act will invite an appropriate response,” he said.
Singh, according to Indian Express, was part of a patrol sent out from Kala Post to guard against infiltrating jihadists taking advantage of fire directed by Pakistani troops on Dana, Khan Basti and Tantray Basti, an arc of villages near the mouth of a mountain stream that leads up from the Neelum river on to the dense forests of Kalaroos, in northern Kashmir. “An officer with the 53 Brigade said he may have been killed in ambush, or lost his footing and fallen into a stream, prior to being executed,” the newspaper said.
On Friday, a BSF man Nitisn Subash was killed when his gun’s chamber burst during his firing on the Pakistani positions. This incident was also reported from Machil sector.
Soon after, the Keran-Karnah sectors were also engulfed in the tensions. A village woman Shaheena was injured and soon after a BSF man was also hit by a shell and was hospitalized.
In retaliation, the army and the BSF shelled Neelam Valley – perhaps for the first time in last 13 years. Reports appearing in the Pakistani media suggest that three civilians – including a seven-year-old girl, were injured when a number of shells landed on a tourist rest house in the picturesque valley facing Keran and Karnah.
Reports suggest that LoC has gone active again in Bhimber belt. Pakistan has claimed two deaths and nine injuries to its civilians in the multiple-sectors that were active in last couple of days.
