E-Paper
5-hr firing at border
In a bid to disrupt Republic Day functions, terrorists, backed by Pakistani Rangers, engaged in heavy firing with Border Security Force (BSF) personnel along the international border in Jammu early on Tuesday morning.
In a bid to disrupt Republic Day functions, terrorists, backed by Pakistani Rangers, engaged in heavy firing with Border Security Force (BSF) personnel along the international border in Jammu early on Tuesday morning.
A senior BSF officer said the terrorists were trying to infiltrate into the country. He said these were the seventh and eighth infiltration bids along the border in the Jammu division of Jammu and Kashmir this year.
The gun battle, continuing intermittently for five hours, took place in the Kanachak area, 20 km northwest of Jammu city.
“Two different terrorist groups fired at Alfa Machal and Beli Ajmat Border Outposts in the Kanachak area. The first group fired at Alfa Machal outpost at about 2 a.m. while the second group started firing an hour later. The terrorists were pushed back after about five hours of firing. It was a desperate attempt by terrorist to disrupt the Republic Day celebrations,” said BSF Inspector General A.K. Sarolia.
The two outposts are at a distance of about 2 kilometres from each other.
A BSF official said a group of about seven terrorists was noticed coming close to border fence in Alfa Machal. The terrorists started firing at the border outpost, also using rocket propelled grenades. He said Pakistani Rangers also fired when the gun battle was taking place.
Another group of terrorists started firing at the Beli Ajmat outpost around 3 a.m., the official said. The gun battle at both outposts ended around 7 a.m.
