No major infiltration in north Kashmir this year: Baramulla SSP

A day after huge cache of arms and ammunition was recovered near the Line of Control (LoC) in north Kashmir, Baramulla senior superintendent of police (SSP) said no major infiltration of militants took place in the sector this year although they seized large quantity of narcotics and war-like stores.

SSP Rayees Bhat, while addressing the media along with army officials, said the police have been operating along with the army and other intelligence agencies to contain infiltration. “We have so far successfully managed to keep the infiltration at bay. There had, however, been repeated attempts to push narcotics, arms and ammunition into the region,” he added.

General officer commanding (GOC) of army’s 19 Infantry Division Major General Ajay Chandpuria said based on intelligence inputs over a period of two weeks about infiltration attempts and dumping of war-like stores in Hathlanga area of Rampur sector in Uri, multiple ambushes and search operations were conducted along the LoC.

On December 24, the security forces had recovered a large number of guns and pistols from Hathlanga Nala of Uri. The search operation yielded recovery of eight AK series rifles along with 24 magazines and 560 live rounds, 12 Chinese pistols along with 24 magazines and 244 live rounds, nine Chinese hand grenades and five Pakistani hand grenades. The forces also recovered 81 balloons with marking of “I Love Pakistan” and Pakistani flag on them.

“This kind of a push perhaps points to a kind of attempt to again instigate certain propaganda, speech, violence and other such incidents. There has been a very good amount of recovery when we mention narco-terror related seizure that we had this year,” Bhat said.

Commander of army’s Rustum Battalion, Manish Punj, said multiple search operations were being carried out by forces. “We launched additional ambushes and area domination patrols during day and night. The terrain is mountainous with huge boulders, thick underground and steep cuttings along the nullah bed,” he added.

Major General Chandpuria said in 2022, the forces recovered 14 AK rifles, 20 pistols, one M16 rifle, 76 hand grenades, 1,226 rounds of AK, 484 rounds of 9mm, 15kg drugs and 10 more packets of suspicious contraband from LoC or its vicinity in six to eight operations in the sector.