Ran 170 metres inside Indian territory | Soldier, three militants killed in Pulwama gunfight

The Border Security Force (BSF) today claimed to have detected a tunnel near the India-Pakistan International Border (IB) in Samba district of Jammu province. This comes on a day a soldier of Army’s elite counter-insurgency unit and three local Hizbul Mujahideen militants were killed in a gunfight in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district.

Originating from Pakistan, the trans-border tunnel was detected in a field at Galar village. The tunnel’s opening is around 170 metres from the IB on the Indian side.

IG (Jammu frontier) NS Jamwal did not rule out the involvement of Pakistan establishment in digging the tunnel. “After inputs, special teams were constituted and one of these detected the tunnel on Friday,” Jamwal said, adding: “Pakistan-made sandbags with markings of Shakargarh and Karachi factories were found at the mouth of the tunnel.”

“The tunnel is about 20 feet deep and 2-3 feet wide,” the BSF Jammu tweeted. “With this detection, the alert BSF troops foiled the nefarious design of Pakistan to infiltrate terrorists into Indian territory.

Efforts of alert Border Security Force troops deployed in our multi-tiered counter-infiltration grid once again resulted in neutralising the evil designs of terrorists in deep connivance with Pakistan Rangers,” said a BSF public relations officer said:

There had been regular inputs about the presence of terrorists in villages along the IB on the Pakistan side, who are desperately looking to cross over to the Indian side, he added.

Meanwhile, joint teams of the police, Army and CRPF cordoned off Zadoora village following an input about the presence of militants.

“As a suspected house was being searched around 1 am, militants hiding in a cowshed opened fire, critically wounding a soldier of 50 Rashtriya Rifles. The soldier was shifted to a medical facility where he succumbed to his injuries. In the gunfight that followed, a militant was killed. The forces maintained a tight cordon and other two militants were killed this morning,” a police official said.

The slain soldier was identified as Sepoy Prashant Sharma, 23, a resident of Khanjapur in UP’s Muzaffarnagar. Prashant had joined 26 Mechanised Infantry Battalion of the Army in November 2016.

The three slain militants have been identified as Adil Hafiz, Arshid Ahmad Dar and Rouf Ahmad Mir, all residents of Pulwama. Two of them had joined militant ranks last week, officials said.

Daily Tribune:  30th August, 2020