Three militants killed, police say Uri attack repeat averted
As a joint team of police and Army cordoned off the village and zeroed in on the target houses, the militants opened indiscriminate fire.
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Soldiers in action at the encounter site in Uri’s Kalghi village in Baramulla district on Sunday. (Source: Express Photo/Shuaib Masoodi)
Jammu and Kashmir Police on Sunday claimed to have foiled a major terror attack plan with the killing of three militants close to the Line of Control (LoC) in Uri. The police said the militants were planning a fidayeen attack, similar to last year’s attack on the Army’s Brigade headquarters in Uri town.
One soldier and four civilians were wounded in the gunfight that lasted several hours at Kalghi village on the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad highway, about seven kilometres from the Brigade headquarters in Uri. “We have averted a major tragedy today after zeroing in on the militants in Uri,” Director General of Police S P Vaid told reporters in Srinagar. “They (the militants) were planning an attack on the lines of the one on at the Army base last year.”
On September 18 last year, militants stormed the Brigade headquarters in Uri after cutting the fence and killed 19 soldiers in one of the worst militant attacks in valley. Several barracks of the fortified camp were also burnt to ashes in the attack.
On Sunday morning, the police received specific inputs about the presence of three militants at Kalghi village. As a joint team of police and Army cordoned off the village and zeroed in on the target houses, the militants opened indiscriminate fire. The forces retaliated, resulting in a gunfight that lasted several hours. The encounter ended with killing of all the three militants hiding in the village.
While Uri is one of the preferred and short infiltration routes for the militants, there have been very few encounters between militants and security forces in the region in the recent years. Though the police did not reveal the identity of the killed militants and their affiliation, they said they were foreign nationals.
“All three Pakistani fidayeen terrorists killed in Uri encounter,” said police spokesperson SP Manoj Kumar. “A major terrorist attack was averted.” The Army, however, played down the incident, saying that an infiltration bid by the militants was foiled. “Infiltration bid foiled in Uri sector. Two armed intruders killed. Ops in progress,” tweeted the Army’s Northern Command.
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