08kashmir1KL Report

SRINAGAR

General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Army’s Northern Command Lt General Sanjiv Chachra Tuesday said Keran operation has been called off after two weeks of battles in the Himalayan region of Kashmir.

Gen Chachra said, “We had very specific intelligence of their operation. We knew where they were and we were prepared for it. Some of these infiltration attempts have been eliminated and some of them have been foiled.”

We are now going to launch operations which are intelligence based, which are surveillance based so that we can meet the challenges,” General Sanjiv Chachra told reporters here.

The Army has been maintaining that it has been on a concerted search operation in Keran sector for the last 15 days after it foiled a major infiltration attempt by militants backed by suspected Pakistan special forces last month.

The 30-40 infiltrating militants were well equipped carrying supplies that would have lasted them 20 to 30 days, Gen. Chachra said.

“We have recovered signal, communication equipments, night vision devices, rations that would have sustained them for almost 20 to 30 days,” he said.

“There were 30 to 40 militants in the infiltrating column at Shaalbhato village in Keran sector. We carried out a number of searches in and adjacent areas. We have found eight bodies,” he said.

Replying to a question on rest of the militants, he said, “(Bodies of) some of them might have been dragged back. Some of them were used in other subsequent operations in neighbouring areas.”

He said the desperation among the militants to infiltrate into Kashmir was due to the dwindling number of ultras in the Valley. “This is the time when they can reinforce their numbers,” he said.

Gen Chachra said, “Sanctity of the LoC is well maintained (by the Indian side). This is our charter, this is the mandate given to us. The sanctity of the LoC can never be trampled.”

Earlier in the day, Army chief Gen. Bikram Singh said the infiltration bid by militants in Keran sector has been foiled. “It was a desperate infiltration bid, which has been foiled,” Gen Singh reportedly said.

He said eight militants have been killed and 59 weapons including 18 AK rifles and war-like stores captured.

 Pertinently, GoC of Srinagar based 15 core had last week said that there where 12-15 bodies of militants lying in the area.

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