Srinagar, July 2: The Army on Wednesday claimed to have killed 11 militants who were trying to infiltrate into Indian territory from Pakistan at North Kashmir’s Tanghdar Sector. A Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO) was also killed in the gun battle that was still in progress till late at night.

The Army said a massive combing operation has been launched to track down the other militants who are believed to be part of this group. On Monday night, heavily armed militants had sneaked into the Valley from Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) after cutting the barbed wire fencing at the Line of Control (LoC) near the Army’s Roshni post. “Our troops have gunned down 11 militants so far. A JCO was also killed in the heavy firefight,” Defence spokesman Col Uma Maheswar said.

“The operation has been going on for the last two days and the troops are tracking militants who are trying to seek shelter in the dense forests below the Sadna pass,” he added.

Col Uma, however, said the identity of slain militants has not yet been ascertained. “The area where the first encounter took place is located on a ridgeline. So far the Army has only been able to retrieve the bodies of six militants. Besides, large quantity of arms and ammunition, six AK 56 rifles have been recovered from the slain militants,” he said.

Sources said the infiltrators were spotted by the Army’s forward post on the LoC in Shamsabari range. Instead of engaging the militants on the LoC, they were allowed to enter the Valley and were tracked through the surveillance equipment that are installed on the LoC at various places. “On Tuesday, the group was surrounded by the troops of 16 JAT and 24 Rashtriya Rifles near the forests of Sadna pass where a heavy firefight took place,” he said. “Since the militants are heavily equipped and the terrain is tough the operation is likely to take time.”

In June the Army had killed seven infiltrators in the same sector near Kulhara and Sonapindi Gali posts. To check infiltration, the Army has installed Israeli made sophisticated surveillance equipment named, Surveillance Grid in sensitive areas in North Kashmir. The Surveillance Grid is the first monitoring system of its kind in South Asia.

The grid makes combined use of high-power cameras, thermal sensing cameras and long range observation system to register all movements along the Line of Control. Sources said the cameras fixed in the grid are very powerful and can catch any movement up to 20 kilometers even during the night.

The Army in J-K has been using number of surveillance equipment like ground sensors hand held thermal imagers, long range reconnaissance and observation systems (LOROS) and battlefield surveillance radars (BFSRS). “The use of these equipments in the state especially on the LoC is rated as highly successful,” an official said.