Army in Uri area of North Kashmir’s Baramulla district is engaged in a search operation along Line of Control (LoC) – that divides Jammu and Kashmir between India and Pakistan – for the consecutive fourth day as suspicious movement was noticed on Sunday by them (Army) in the area.
There has been no major damage and loss of lives in the operation. “One soldier sustained minor injury in the initial hours of the operation and is stable,” said the defence spokesperson Colonel Emron Musavi.
The army has not issued an official statement on this development yet however the defence spokesperson based in Srinagar confirmed to The Kashmir Walla that the operation was still on in Uri.
According to government sources in Delhi, as quoted by the NDTV, a group of around six infiltrators managed to sneak in from Pakistan. A soldier was injured in firing during the infiltration attempt, they said.
The search operation near the LoC has entered its fourth day as the army is yet to call off searches as there has been no trace of infiltrators on Wednesday.
For the first time on Monday morning authorities suspended phone and mobile internet connectivity for at least 36 hours in the area while the search operation was on. This is for the first time when phone and mobile internet service was suspended in the wake of a cross-border infiltration attempt.
The “infiltration attempt” came around the fifth anniversary of the Uri attack that was carried out by Jaish-e-Muhammad militant outfit. In the attack 18 army personnel were killed and at least 17 were injured. The attack is seen as the deadliest on the security establishment along LoC in recent years.
On Monday General Officer Commanding 15 Corps D P Pandey said that they were not sure whether the infiltrators had returned back after making an attempt or sneaked into this side.
In September 2017 four militants were killed in 3 day long operation in the Uri sector who as per army had infiltrated into the Uri area of Baramulla district
“Army foiled a major terrorist attempt who had infiltrated into Uri with well equipped explosives [had planned] to strike at Kalgai army camp along the road in Uri to Kaman Post,” the then colonel Harpreet Singh, deputy commander of 12 Brigade based in Uri said.
For the past few months the twin border districts of Rajouri and Poonch in Jammu division along LoC also witnessed increased militant activities as many as nine militants were killed while three “operatives” were arrested.
In July this year, maintaining that multi-tier security setup in place along LoC, Army’s General Officer Commanding (GOC), 16 Corps, Lt Gen J.P. Nehra had said that there has been no successful infiltration attempt along LoC since January this year.
In 2019, to thwart any infiltration along LoC by armed militants, security agencies had identified over 20 entry routes along the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir and have put in place multi-tier security but the infiltration attempts have not stopped.
A reply by Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy in Rajya Sabha last year suggested that infiltration has not stopped but showed a decline.
“In 2019, 219 infiltration attempts, with forty percent success with 141 successful infiltrations. In 2020, up to July the 47 attempts were made to infiltrate, while success has been twenty percent,” he replied.
