Pakistani troops on Saturday fired upon Indian posts along the Line of Control (LoC) with mortar shells at Nowgam sector in North Kashmir’s Kupwara district.A senior army official told GNS that Pakistani troops, armed with heavy machine guns fired at LP Post no. 3 along the LoC in Nowgam sector area of Handwara at around 01:00 pm. “The firing continued till 02:30 pm today,” he said adding that army’s 3 Kamaw guarding the border retaliated which resulted in an exchange of fire”.
During the firing, a soldier near the LP Post sustained serious injuries and has been immediately shifted to army’s 92 Base hospital here in Srinagar, official sources said.Sources identified the injured soldier as Lias Naik Anand Kumar (belt no. 4194267 XL).Meanwhile, sources said that army along with extra contingent of forces launched massive searches near the LP Post in the sector following the inputs about the presence of intruders in the forests.In another incident, army’s 3/3 GR and army’s 19 ML conducted searches separately in many forest areas of the Chowkibal sector.
Official sources told GNS that following suspicious movement at Gugaldara forest, army’s 3/3 GR launched searches in the area last evening. “As such the searches intensified by the forces, the militants hiding in the area managed to escape after a brief gunfight”.
However, the searches were later conducted in the adjacent forests by the army’s 9 ML, sources said, adding that the militants managed to give slip to the forces. “Both the searches ended later today afternoon without any causality”.During the day long searches, army’s 3/3 GR recovered some ammunition which include 3 UBGL (2 fired, 1 live) and 42 AK ammunitions (41 fired and 1 live) from the Gugaldara forest area. (GNS)