Agencies
JAMMU, NOVEMBER 27
A day before the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Jammu and Kashmir, three Indian Army jawans and four militants were reportedly killed in a fierce gun battle near the international border in Jammu district’s Arnia area on Thursday.
Caiught in the crossfire, three civilians, too, lost their lives. The gunfight between the militants and the army was continuing, a senior army officer said. Two militants had been shot dead and one arrested, he added.The officer, who did not wish to be named as he was not authorised to speak to the media, said it all started after four to five militants attacked the army base near the town of Arnia, about 4km from the border with Pakistan.
The militants attacked in two teams, with one group heading for a vacant army bunker and the others holed up inside a village house, the officer said.
According to sources, at least four militants after crossing the border late at night stopped a vehicle early in the morning and killed its driver.
The militants took the vehicle towards Pindi Khattar belt of Arnia border sector of Jammu district and then occupied a vacant army bunker, a source said.
The army, which is second tier of the security along the IB manned by the Border Security Force (BSF), has bunkers though not manned.
“The terrorists came out of the vehicle and moved to abandoned bunkers of the army near civilian area fired at the civilians,” a source said. “The bunker was of army’s 92 infantry brigade. A fierce encounter broke out. A jawan has been killed and three others, including a civilian, are injured.”
A car has also been seized in the area which might have been used by the militants.
PM Modi is slated to campaign for his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the second phase of assembly elections in Udhampur and Poonch districts of Jammu and Kashmir Friday.
Modi will address rally in Udhampur district, which is 100 km from Arnia.
Separatists have been fighting Indian forces in Kashmir since 1989. India accuses Pakistan of training and arming the rebels in the part of Kashmir it controls and sending them to the Indian side, a claim its neighbour denies.
India and Pakistan exchanged their heaviest gunfire in a decade last month, killing more than 20 people.
Meanwhile, in another incident, troops noticed suspicious movement near the Line of Control (LoC) in Leharan Company Operating Base in Lam Battalion area of Rajouri district around 6:30am, a senior army officer said.
The security personnel responded immediately and foiled an infiltration bid, he said. During the search operation, a suspected militant was apprehended and one AK-47 with 30 rounds, one Pakistan made pistol and Rs. 8,100 in Pakistani currency were seized from him.
He has been identified Adul Qayoomi, alias Punjabi, he said.
Security has been beefed up by the BSF along the border and also in Jammu city, Udhampur and Poonch areas.
The army had Wednesday said militants were out to disturb the assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir but the forces were alert to foil their designs.
