Srinagar, August 9: Two militants and a soldier were killed Sunday in gunbattle during infiltration bids by ultras at Keran and Tangdhar sectors along the Line of Control (LoC) in Kashmir while an Army officer lost his life in a mishap during a search operation. An infiltration bid was foiled along the LoC in Keran sector of north Kashmir’s Kupwara district Sunday in which two militants were killed, an army officer said.
The alert troops guarding the LoC noticed a group of militants trying to sneak into this side of Jumagund Nar in Keran sector, he said, adding the troops challenged the militants who indulged in indiscriminate firing. The troops returned the fire and in an ensuing encounter two militants were killed, the officer said.
In an overnight encounter between the security forces and infiltrating militants near Ragni post in Taya forests near the LoC in Tangdhar sector, an army jawan was killed and two others were injured. “One jawan made the supreme sacrifice while two others were injured in the operation against militants in Tangdhar sector of Kupwara district,” the Army official said. In an another operation near LoC in Gurez sector of north Kashmir’s Bandipora district, an army officer was killed after he slipped and fell in a deep gorge.
Captain Prem Kumar Krishan Patil of Army’s 36 RR unit slipped into a gorge during a search operation in the forest area close to the LoC Saturday, the officer said. He said the search operation was launched following inputs about some suspicious movement in the area. The injured officer was rushed to a nearby hospital from where he was shifted to a medical facility here, the officer said. Patil, however, succumbed to the injuries later in the day, the officer added.
Pakistan broke protocol on Kashmir speaker: India
New Delhi/Islamabad: Pakistan broke protocol by not inviting the speaker of the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly for a Commonwealth meeting in Islamabad, India’s envoy in Islamabad TCA Raghavan has said. The Dawn newspaper Sunday quoted Raghavan as saying at a book release function Saturday night that Pakistan had invited delegations from Jammu and Kashmir in the past. India has said it won’t attend the Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference if Pakistan does not invite Jammu and Kashmir speaker Kavinder Gupta, the high commissioner said. The conference is to be held in Islamabad from September 30 to October 8. India has demanded that the venue be shifted to some other country. Speaking at the venue, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s foreign affairs adviser Sartaj Aziz said his country would never invite a Jammu and Kashmir speaker as the legislature “does not enjoy legitimate status”. “We cannot invite the speaker of the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly as the Assembly does not enjoy legitimate status because it represents a disputed territory, which needs to be settled in the light of the UN resolutions,” he was quoted as saying by state-run Radio Pakistan. Pakistan’s position on Jammu and Kashmir would be compromised if the speaker of the “Kashmir’s legislature is invited to the conference”, Aziz said. The conference would go ahead as scheduled as over 70 per cent delegates have confirmed their participation, he added.
