Baramulla: A day after two Pakistani militants were killed in Sopore, police said that there are 35-40 non-local and 17 local militants active in north Kashmir.
“About 35-40 foreign militants are active in north Kashmir, while some 17 local militants are also with them. In the past seven months many of the foreign militants have infiltrated to this side,” Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG), North Kashmir, Sulaiman Chowdhary told reporters here.
The army’s Commanding Officer of 5 Sector RR, Vivek Narang, who was also present along with the DIG at the press conference, said, “At present some 250-300 militants are ready on launch pads across the LoC to infiltrate. But we are ready to foil their attempts as in the past many of the infiltration attempts have been foiled by the forces along LoC.”
Meanwhile, sources said that all the three militants were buried in the Gantamulla Baramulla graveyard late Sunday evening. A local said that many families reached the graveyard for identification of the militants but were all denied the opportunity to do so by the police.
The DIG said that Usman, a Pakistani militant who was killed in the Sopore encounter, was also involved in the recent attack in Sopore in which a CRPF man and a civilian from Srinagar were killed.
“On specific information, a cordon and search operation was launched in Reban village in police district Sopore on the intervening night of 11 and 12th July. While searching houses and evacuating civilians from nearby houses, the militants holed up in a house started firing on security forces, which led to the encounter during which three militants were killed, two of whom were identified as foreigners,” Chowdhary said.
The DIG identified the Pakistani duo as having the code names of Usman Bhai and Saifullah. He said that the slain militants were active for the last two years.
“The arms which we recovered from their possession indicates that they were going to plan some big attack on security forces in the coming days. After their killing, a major threat has been averted,” the DIG said.

Mushtaq Ahamd