Army jawan killed in clash with militants at LoC in J&K's Kupwara

Srinagar: An Army jawan was killed while foiling an infiltration bid from across the Line of Control (LoC) in Keran sector of Kupwara district of Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday.

Earlier, a militant was gunned down by the security forces during a cordon-and-search operation in a neighbouring area, the officials said.

In two more clashes reported from Kupwara during the past two days, three militants suspected to be Lashkar-e-Tayyaba cadres and one Army jawan were also killed.

According to army sources, the militants attempted to breach the line of control (LoC) fence near Chunkan Post in Keran sector to sneak into Jammu and Kashmir from Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir PoK at 7.30 am (another report said the incident took place at 1.45 pm). But their attempt was foiled by alert Indian troops and in the exchange fire one Army jawan was killed.

“One terrorist is also reported to have been killed,” said a police source. It added that two soldiers were injured during the clash.

The police sources also said that the soldiers of the Army’s 9 SIKH LI were patrolling the area near the Chunkan Post when they came under barrage of fire from infiltrating militants.

The soldiers retaliated and in the exchange of fire, one of them identified as Sandeep Singh sustained grievous injuries, the source said. Following this, he was shifted to a military hospital nearby Drugmulla where doctors declared him brought dead.