2 injured in grenade attack on security forces in Pulwama
Two civilians were injured after terrorists lobbed a grenade on security personnel in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama district on Wednesday evening, official sources said.
Sources said terrorists had targeted a party of police and the CRPF at Kakpora in Pulwama, but the grenade missed and exploded on the road causing splinter injuries to two civilians.
The injured have been moved to the hospital for treatment.
Additional teams of security forces have reached the spot. The area has been cordoned off and searches have been started to track down the attackers.
Pak resorts to unprovoked firing, shelling in J&K’s Poonch district
Pakistan used small arms and mortars on Wednesday to target Indian positions along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch district.
Defence Ministry spokesman Colonel Devender Anand said that at about 6.10 p.m. on Wednesday, Pakistan initiated unprovoked ceasefire violation by firing with small arms and shelling with mortars along the LoC in Shahpur and Kirni sectors in Poonch district.
The spokesman said the Indian army retaliated befittingly.
Pakistan has been violating ceasefire along the LoC with impunity since the beginning of this year. As many as 30 civilians have been killed while 120 others have been injured in over 3,200 such ceasefire violations by Pakistan since January 2020.
Slain Jaish militants were planning big – 11 AK 47’s, pistols recovered: Police
Jaish terrorists killed in Jammu encounter near Nagrota on Thursday were carrying huge quantity of arms and ammunition, including 11 AK-47 rifles and pistols and in all probability were planning something big, perhaps “disruption of district-level elections”, top police officer said.
DG Police J&K Dilbag Singh said: “The group of four JeM terrorists had infiltrated into India through the international border in Samba last night.”
The four were travelling in a Kashmir-bound truck and were killed during the encounter when their truck was intercepted by police at a toll plaza.
Inspector General Jammu, Mukesh Kunar, said there was specific inputs about the militants’ movement.
“There were inputs that the terrorists were planning to disrupt the upcoming District Development Council (DDC) elections,” he said.
He said the security was tight and the vehicles were being thoroughly checked on the highway.
Around 5 a.m., the truck carrying the militants was stopped. On questioning, the driver got hesitant and leaped out and started running away.
The IG said that the police team was fired upon from inside the truck and in retaliation four Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorists were killed.
A large quantity of arms and ammunition was recovered from them, including 11 AK rifles and three pistols.
“They were planning something big,” Kumar said. “Each terrorist was carrying at least three AK rifles.”
This is the second such encounter on the Jammu-Srinagar National highway this year.
In January three terrorists were gunned down by the security forces. They had adopted the similar modus operandi by hiding inside a truck.
Pak pushing terrorists into India through IB in Punjab, Jammu
Pakistan is exploiting the International Border (IB) in Punjab and Jammu area to push in maximum number of terrorists before the onset of winters, intelligence agency official said on Thursday.
A senior intel officer said that Pakistan is making deliberate attempts to push terrorists and lately started exploiting Punjab and Jammu sector.
He also said that on Thursday morning itself four terrorists belonging to Pakistan-based terrorist outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) travelling in a truck were killed in an encounter near Nagrota in Jammu area.
They were neutralised in an encounter at Ban Toll Plaza Jammu.
They infiltrated from the international border area in Samba sector and were on the way to Srinagar region.
On Wednesday night they infiltrated in to Indian soil when Pakistan resorted to unprovoked heavy firing using mortars and heavy machine guns in the Samba sector.
Thereafter, the Border Security Force alerted the security establishments across the union territory about the Pakistani attempt to push terrorists in India.
The terrorists have started using the sectors along the IB to infiltrate due to the strong anti-infiltration grid established by the Indian security forces along the Line of Control (LoC).
Pakistan is unable to infiltrate neither terrorists nor weapons into the valley to increase violence levels in the valley via the LoC.
“Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence has been given an ultimatum to push in maximum infiltrators along with weapons into Kashmir before onset of winters, when the undergrowth/bushes in most infiltration prone areas will die down due to dew and snowfall,” Indian intelligence has alerted security establishment.
So they are using international border in Jammu and Punjab sectors.
Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) is based at Bahawalpur in Pakistan. The JeM’s primary motive is to separate Kashmir from India and merge it into Pakistan. Since its inception in 2000, the group has carried out several attacks in Jammu and Kashmir. It portrays Kashmir as a “gateway” to the entire India, whose Muslims are also deemed to be in need of liberation.
“After liberating Kashmir, it aims to carry its ‘Ghazawa-E-Hind (make all the Indians forcibly convert to Islam) in other parts of India, with an intent to drive Hindus and other non-Muslims from the Indian subcontinent,” the intelligence agencies had stated.
JeM was created with the support of Pakistan’s ISI which uses it to fight in Kashmir and other places, and continues to provide it backing.
India slams Pak Army for pushing terrorists into Jammu & Kashmir
India on Thursday slammed the Pakistan Army for pushing terrorists into Jammu & Kashmir through the Line of Control (LoC) despite repeated calls for restraint.
In its weekly briefing, the ministry of external affairs said, “The incessant infiltration of terrorists and induction of weapons to fuel terror activities continues unabated. Such activities are not possible without the support of Pakistani forces deployed along the LoC.”
Despite repeated calls for restraint and adherence to the ceasefire understanding of 2003 for maintaining peace and tranquillity, Pakistani forces continue to engage in providing supporting cover fire to infiltrators, the ministry spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said.
The Central government lodged a strong protest over the unprovoked ceasefire violations by Pakistani forces, on multiple sectors along the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir on November 13, which resulted in the killing of four innocent civilians and serious injuries to 19 others.
Srivastava said the Charge d’Affaires of the High Commission of Pakistan was summoned by the Ministry of External Affairs on November 14. India also strongly protested Pakistan’s continued support to cross-border terrorist infiltration into India.
“Pakistan was once again reminded of its bilateral commitment to not allow any territory under its control to be used for terrorism against India in any manner,” he said.
