Indian Army foils Pakistan’s major terror plot at Line of Control, 2 ‘BAT commandos’ killed

The Indian Army foiled Pakistan’s major terror plot and neutralised two intruders along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir’s Naugam area. The incident took place on the intervening night of December 30 and 31st. The army detected the intruders, which were reportedly commandos from the Pakistan Army’s Border Action Team. According to news agency ANI, the army carried out massive search operation in the thick forests of Naugam before gunning down the intruders. Confirming the news, the Indian Army said that, “own troops had conducted prolonged search operations in thick jungles and difficult terrain conditions to ascertain the situation, which had confirmed elimination of two likely Pakistani soldiers and resulted in the recovery of a large cache of warlike stores.”

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The army officials said that they have requested Pakistan to take back the bodies of the intruders since Pakistan did provide full covering fire support to them. The operation comes days after the army gunned down four terrorists in Pulwama. The terrorists were from Jaish-e-Mohammed terror organization. In another operation, a Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist was killed in a brief encounter in South Kashmir’s Pulwama district. “Based on a credible input about the presence of militants in Banderpora area of district Pulwama, a cordon and search operation (CASO) was launched in the morning hours jointly by Police and security forces in the area,’ police had said.

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“As the searches were going on, the search party was fired upon by the terrorists. The fire was retaliated leading to a gunfight. In the ensuing encounter, one militant was killed. The slain militant was identified as Ishfaq Yousuf Wani, a resident of Koil Pulwama in South Kashmir. The area where the encounter took place was an orchard,” said police officials. “Wani was involved in several ‘terror crimes’. He was wanted by the law for his complicity in a series of terror crimes including attacks on security establishments and civilian atrocities,” the Indian Express quoted an official as saying.

Meanwhile, Hurriyat Chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq on Friday said that Cordon and search operations (CASO) launched in the extreme cold weather should immediately stop. Taking to micro-blogging website Twitter he wrote, “At #JamaMasjid today. Grossly Inhuman on part of GOI that even in this severe cold as mercury has dipped to minus 8 degree celsius, children women and men forcibly brought out of their homes for conduct of Cordon and search operations (CASO)! This should be immediately stopped.”