Langate Follows Baramulla, Army Says 3 Militants Killed

SRINAGAR: The Army Thursday claimed to have killed three suspected militants who tried to storm a camp in north Kashmir's Langate, four days after a similar attack in the adjacent Baramulla resulted in the killing of a BSF jawan.

According to reports, the heavily armed suspects, dressed in army fatigues, attacked the Army's 30 Rashtriya Rifles camp in Langate town of Kupwara district in the wee hours of Thursday.

Sources in the Army said the suspects tried to breach the security around the camp by firing at multiple points. "They had probably planned to storm the camp but the attack was effectively thwarted by alert guards on duty at that time," sources said.

Officials said the guards retaliated the fire from the suspects, sparking a gun battle which lasted for nearly 90 minutes. "Three militants were killed in the resulting encounter," Colonel Rajesh Kalia, spokesman of the Indian Army's Srinagar-headquartered 15 Corps told a news agency.

Sources said the firing had started again at the camp at around 6:40 am following which the three suspected militants were killed. The combing operation at the site is still underway with the forces suspecting presence of more militants in the area.

Officials said three AK-47 rifles and some ammunition has been recovered from the suspects whose identity was not immediately known to the forces. "Although firing has stopped, but we are conducting search operation in the area," a senior army officer said.

On October 2, a BSF trooper was killed and another suffered grievous injuries when suspected militants attacked the camp of 47 Rashtriya Rifles in Janbazpora area of north Kashmir's Baramulla town.

The suspected militants, however, managed to escape, triggering a red alert across the valley with agencies apprehending attacks on security installations by the suspects who remain on the run.

Meanwhile, at least four soldiers of Indian army were wounded in heavy cross-border mortar shelling in Mendhar tehsil of Poonch district along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir late last evening, police said.

“Several mortar shells landed near forward Indian army posts in Balnoi Sona Gali in which four soldiers of Mahar regiment were injured,” said a police official.

(File picture)