J-K: Army camp attack, infiltration bids foiled; 7 militants killed

Security forces gunned down seven militants in Kashmir on Thursday including three who tried to storm an army camp in northern Kashmir, the second such strike in the Valley after the September 18 Uri attack.

Security forces gunned down seven militants in Kashmir on Thursday including three who tried to storm an army camp in northern Kashmir, the second such strike in the Valley after the September 18 Uri attack.

Indian Army soldiers patrol outside their base camp in Langate 75 kilometers north of Srinagar, Jammu and  Kashmir, Thursday, Oct 6, 2016. Security forces foiled an attack on an army camp and killed seven militants including three who tried to attack an army camp in northern Kashmir. (AP)

Four infiltrators were killed when the army repelled three infiltration bids along the line of control, a signal that Pakistan has stepped up the offensive after Indian forces struck militants preparing to sneak into India from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir on September 29.

Two global positioning system sets and two wireless sets with code sheets of the kind used by Lashkar-e-Taiba terror group were recovered from the militants who attacked the 30 Rashtriya Rifles (RR) camp at Langate in Kupwara district, intelligence sources said in Delhi.

“The terrorists fired indiscriminately on our sentry posts and on our jawans in the resting area. However, alert action by the jawans forced the militants to retreat,” colonel Rajiv Sarang, commanding officer of 30 RR, said.

A large cache of arms, including three AK-47 rifles and grenade launchers, food and medicines bearing Pakistani markings were also recovered from them, the army said.

The army overnight beat back two infiltration bids in Naugam sector in Kupwara and one in Rampur in Uri along the LoC, the third such attempt after India’s surgical strikes.

Four bodies were recovered during the combing operations in Naugam, an army spokesperson said.

The Langate camp is not too far from the military post in Baramulla targetted by six militants on October 2 that left a Border Security Force jawan dead.

The strike came within days of the worst attack against the army in the border state when 19 soldiers were killed by suspected Pakistani militants in Uri.

India crossed the line of control, the de facto border, to avenge the strike, worsening the ties with Pakistan which says the so-called cross-LoC raid was nothing but cross-border firing.