New Delhi: Four soldiers including one Army Major have been martyred while foiling an infiltration attempt on Tuesday morning, in which two terrorists have been killed at the Line of Control in Gurez sector of Jammu and Kashmir's Bandipora district. The Army unit challenged the infiltrating terrorists who fired at the soldiers near the post of 36 Rashtriya Rifles at Govind Nallah on the LoC.
The officer martyred has been identified as Major KP Rane while the jawans are Havildar Jamie Singh, Havildar Vikramjeet and Rifleman Mandeep from 36 Rashtriya Rifles (Garhwal Rifles). The bodies of the two terrorists killed have been recovered while the search for the other two is going on.
Army officers say that at least four terrorists managed to escape and are believed to have fled back to Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir. The terrorists were trying to infiltrate under the cover of heavy firing by the Pakistani Army.
Army officers say the infiltrating terrorists were spotted trying to cross the LoC in Gurez's Baktoor at 1 AM under the cover of heavy Pakistani firing. All the Army posts in the area were on high alert after Pakistani soldiers started to fire without any provocation to help the group of eight heavily armed terrorists.
The terrorists fired at the soldiers after they were challenged which led to a fierce encounter. While the Army foiled the infiltration attempt and shot dead four terrorists and forced the other four to flee, a Major and three jawans attained martyrdom.
According to sources, it was a group of six to eight terrorists that crossed the Line of Control or LoC at Gurez in north Kashmir's Bandipore district, 125 km from Srinagar.
They were intercepted by soldiers, leading to a fierce gunfight. The encounter is still going on and the army has called in reinforcements to go after the remaining terrorists, who fled in the nearby jungles.
The Pakistani forces have been targeting Indian positions at Gurez since Monday night, in a possible attempt to provide covering fire to the group of heavily armed infiltrators.
