BSF jawan injured as militants ambush convoy in Kashmir’s Kupwara district

A Border Security Force (BSF) jawan was injured on Saturday as militants ambushed the convoy he was part of in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kupwara district.

The BSF convoy was travelling from Langate towards Baramulla when militants opened fire on the vehicles near Udhipora crossing.

Superintendent of police, Handwara, Ghulam Jeelani said that the militants opened fire from the open fields lining the road. “A soldier has been hit in his thigh. He is stable,” he added.

The injured jawan, head constable Satinder Singh, was hospitalised and his condition is said to be stable.

This was second attack on security forces in the Handwara area in the past 36 hours. Militants on Thursday night opened fire on a police station here but there was no damage in the incident as the ultras fled from the scene when the police returned fire.

The SP attributed the increase in militant attacks to increased infiltration during summer when Kashmir was reeling under unrest following the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen militant Burhan Wani.

In the past few months, there has been a surge in militant activity in the Valley besides escalation of tensions between India and Pakistan on the Line of Control.

Saturday’s attack came just a day after two militants and an army jawan were killed in a gunfight in Bandipora in northern Jammu and Kashmir, and two police officers were killed as militants attacked a patrol van in Kulgam district of south Kashmir.

Earlier, on November 22, two militants were killed and a cache of arms and two freshly minted Rs 2,000 noteswere found on the men suspected to be members of the Lashkar-e-Taiba.

Jammu and Kashmir has seen a rise in gunfights within the state and along the border as ties between India and Pakistan have plunged to a new low.

Pakistani troops killed three Indian soldiers and mutilated one of the bodies close to Line of Control, the de factor border, in Machhil sector on November 23, with the army vowing retribution. Fourteen Pakistanis, including civilians, were killed in heavy the shelling the next day.

With agency inputs

First Published: Nov 26, 2016 12:20 IST