Indian Army defeats and kills 2 Pakistani terrorists attempting to infiltrate J-K’s Poonch

Two Pakistani terrorists were killed by alert troops Monday along the Line of Control in the Poonch area of Jammu and Kashmir, the Army reported, thwarting an attempt at an infiltration. According to an Indian Army official, the dead terrorists were wounded during a battle with the Army but were able to escape beyond the Line of Control (LoC) before passing away. As a result, the remains of the dead terrorists could not be found.

According to him, the firefight scene in the Balakote sector yielded one AK-47 rifle, two magazines, 30 rounds, two hand grenades, and some medications with Pakistani provenance. The existence of terrorists waiting to cross the LoC from the opposite Balakote sector was disclosed by intelligence inputs from numerous agencies and the police, according to Lt Col Suneel Bartwal, a defence PRO with a base in Jammu. Based on these inputs, the owner’s monitoring grid was put on high alert, and many ambushes were set up in strategic locations. In the early hours of Monday, he claimed that the alert forces in the Balakote neighborhood of Hamirpur discovered the two Pakistani terrorists trying to cross the Line of Control into the Indian side while taking advantage of the bad weather, heavy fog, dense vegetation, and undulating terrain.

“The terrorists were confronted and then engaged with efficient fire as they drew near their own ambush positions. In order to escape from the ambush site, the terrorists were compelled to take advantage of the weather and terrain, according to Lt Col Bartwal. However, effective shooting led to one terrorist collapsing on the ground close to the LoC, the speaker continued. Following the movement of more troops into the region and an improvement in the weather and visibility, search activities started in the late afternoon.

An AK-47 weapon with two magazines, 30 rounds, two grenades, and drugs with Pakistani origin were found after a check of the area. He continued, “As per intelligence inputs, the two terrorists who attempted to infiltrate were injured but still managed to return across the LoC and later succumbed,” adding during the search, “blood trails leading towards the LoC were also detected.”

According to Lt Col Bartwal, the Indian troops continue to be vigilant and on high alert in order to thwart any efforts at border infiltration. This was the second attempt at infiltration that the Army has foiled near the LoC in Poonch this month. On August 7, a self-declared Hizbul Mujahideen divisional commander and his bodyguard were slain while trying to sneak into the Indian side to resurrect the activities of the outlawed group in the area. Although the corpse of Muneser Hussain, the Hizbul commander, and a sizable stock of weapons and ammunition were found, his bodyguard’s body was not located since he managed to cross the LoC and return to the Degwar sector.