Six Jaish militants killed near LoC

Srinagar: Six Jaish-e-Mohammed militants were on Monday killed in a fire fight with the security forces in Uri sector of northwestern Baramulla district soon after they had sneaked into Jammu and Kashmir from PoK, allegedly to carry out fidayeen or suicide attacks on the eve of Republic Day.

The officials here said that the heavily armed group of JeM militants had during the intervening night of January 14 and 15, after breaching the LoC, crossed the Jhelum using a boat and reached Uri’s Dulanja area where they were challenged by the Army. “The alert Army jawans challenged the infiltrating terrorists and asked them to surrender but they responded by opening fire, triggering an encounter,” a defence spokesman here said. Later, members from J&K police’s counterinsurgency Special Operations Group (SOG) and those from the Central armed police forces, including CRPF, joined the operation against the militants, officials said. J&K’s director general of police Shesh Paul Vaid tweeted, “Three suicidal JeM terrorists killed in Dulanja Uri while infiltrating in a joint operation by @JmuKmrPolice / Army / CAPF. Search for the fourth terrorist is still on.” Later in the evening, the police chief wrote on Twitter, “2 more dead bodies of terrorists recovered from encounter site taking the total to 6”.