2 soldiers, 5 militants among 10 killed in J

Srinagar, June 12 (UNI) Two infiltrators of Pakistan-based Lashker-e- Toiba (LeT), three other militants and two Army jawans were among 10 people killed and five soldiers wounded while militants made an unsuccessful bid to blow up a police station in the Jammu and Kashmir overnight.

A defence ministry spokesman said troops and Special Operation Group (SOG) of Jammu and Kashmir police killed three militants in an encounter at Gagul, Lolab, in the frontier district of Kupwara this afternoon. One more soldier died in the encounter, which was still on when the reports last came in. With this, two soldiers had so far died and four others were wounded.

He said troops deployed at an outpost near Line of Control (LOC) in Gulmarg Sector, noticed two militants sneaking into this side from Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK) through a nullah last evening.

When challenged and asked to surrender, militants opened fire.

The fire was returned and in the fierce clash the duo was killed at 2300 hours.

He said after the snow started melting on the higher reaches, a number of attempts were made by the militants, waiting across the border to sneak into this side from POK.

The spokesman said troops have intensified foot and night patrolling in extreme difficult terrain conditions to thwart any such attempt.

He said there has been no let up on the part of Pakistan to push militants into this side.

The slain infiltrators belongs to Pakistan based Lashker- e- Toiba (LeT), the spokesman added.

He said besides AK 47 rifles, radio set, grenades, 20 kg explosives, improvised explosive device timers and detonators were recovered from them.

The spokesman said the documents recovered from the slain militants reveal that they were highly trained explosive experts.

They were here to cause large scale blasts in the cities and town of Srinagar and Baramulla to kill civilians and security forces, spokesman said.

Militants, operating in the Kashmir valley have now started targeting security forces and other vital installations by hurling grenades or triggering car bombs. This, he said, was to avoid direct contact with the security forces after they (militants) suffered heavy damages.

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