Two soldiers and two militants were killed near the Line of Control in North Kashmir’s Nowgam sector while the militants were trying to infiltrate into the Valley. Army was engaged with a group of infiltrators near Nowgam sector on the LoC in Kupwara district. Army said the operation is still under way.

Army had killed four foreign militants in the same sector and also arrested one militant on Wednesday. The arrested militant has been identified as Bhadur Ali, a resident of Lahore in Pakistan. Ali’s two accomplishes were killed in the encounter. The Army had recovered three AK-47 rifles, two pistols and Indian currency worth Rs 23,000 from his possession. Ali is the second Pakistani terrorist captured alive by Indian forces in the last two months in Kashmir.

Ali alias Bahadur Ali alias Saifullah, confessed that he was from Jahama village of Raiwind in Lahore and he had entered Indian territory along with two other terrorists to exploit the unrest in Kashmir. Ali confessed that he had received terror training at Lashkar camp in PoK. He was also trained for map reading and handling GPS devices.

According to inputs received from various sources in the Counter Infiltration Grid (CIG), around 100 militants of the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Muhammad have infiltrated the Valley, using the higher reaches of Gulmarg and Boniyar in Baramulla (north Kashmir) to reach the southern parts of the state via Yusmarg, the route taken by the tribal raiders from Pakistan to wrest control of Jammu and Kashmir.

The Border Security Forces had conducted a raid in the night following which the terrorists fired shots at the personnel. "Two AK rifles, one UBGL and other war-like stores were recovered from the scene of the gunbattle," said an officer.

More terrorists are believed to be hiding in the region and the security forces are engaged in wiping them out. The Army has foiled an infiltration attempt by the terrorists in the intervening night of Friday and Saturday.

By Premji