India kills ‘three militants in foiled army base attack’

The suspected militants attempted to break through the perimeter of the army base in India-controlled Kashmir before dawn but were repelled by soldiers, Indian officers said.

Indian soldiers display arms and ammunition recovered with the bodies of suspected militants in India-controlled Kashmir on October 6, 2016. Mukhtar Khan/AP Photo

SRINAGAR // Indian soldiers on Thursday killed three suspected militants who tried to attack an army base in India-controlled Kashmir, officers said, the latest in a wave of attacks that has raised tensions with neighbouring Pakistan.

It came as Pakistan’s powerful army chief lashed out at India, warning that any act of aggression from New Delhi would not go unpunished.

The suspected militants, who were heavily armed and wearing army fatigues, attempted to break through the perimeter of the Indian army base in Kupwara district before dawn but were repelled by soldiers in exchanges of fire, the officers said.

“On being challenged, these three terrorists opened indiscriminatory fire on our sentry posts and also onto our living shelters where our jawans (soldiers) were resting,” said Colonel Rajiv Saharan, the commanding officer of a counter insurgency unit at Kupwara.

“Three Pakistani terrorists were eliminated.”

A “huge quantity” of guns, grenade launchers and other weapons were seized from the militants and displayed for the media, he added.

Later on Thursday, the Indian army also said it had found the bodies of four suspected militants in Naugam, near the de facto border dividing India-controlled Kashmir with Pakistan-controlled Kashmir. This followed a bid by the suspected militants to infiltrate the Indian side on Wednesday night, the army said.

“One body was recovered in the afternoon and another three later in the day as the area was being combed,” said army spokesman Colonel Rajesh Kalia.

Thursday’s attempted attack in Kupwara was the second in India-controlled Kashmir this week after an Indian soldier was killed on Sunday night by suspected militants trying to raid a base in the town of Baramulla.

In a televised speech on Thursday, Pakistani army chief General Raheel Sharif asked the international community to condemn what he called India’s “insinuations and fabrications” about Pakistan, adding that Islamabad has made “unparalleled contributions in the global fight against terrorism”.

Tensions spiked last week when India said its troops had crossed the de facto border in Kashmir to launch “surgical strikes” on militant posts inside Pakistan-controlled territory.

A furious Islamabad denied the strikes, however, saying that two of its soldiers were killed in cross border firing.

Indian and Pakistani troops regularly exchange fire across the Line of Control, but rarely send ground troops over the de facto border.

Relations have been strained since gunmen raided an Indian army base in Kashmir on September 18, killing 19 soldiers, the worst such attack in more than a decade. New Delhi blamed the September 18 attack on Pakistan-based militants, triggering a public outcry and demands for military action.

Since then the two armies have exchanged almost daily small arms and mortar fire along the Line of Control in Kashmir.

* Agence France-Presse, Associated Press