Arms and ammunition unearthed in joint operations in Kashmir

Rajouri, Dec 8 (ANI): In a joint operation, state police and jawans of Rashtriya Rifles (RR), raided a militant hideout and seized a cache of arms and ammunition from a forest area in Rajouri region of Jammu and Kashmir.

Major N S Mann, an officer of Kalakote-based 60 RR disclosed this to the mediapersons at Chorgala near Dharamsal in Rajouri District on Wednesday.

He said that based on intelligence inputs the team began a combing operation.

The recovery included a pistol, a pistol magazine, a pistol round, 94 rounds of AK-47, one satellite phoneset and one ammunition pouch, belonging to Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militants.

"With the help of continuous search operation based on our reliable sources, we identified this location and today we busted this hideout around 2 in afternoon. We recovered a satellite phone, 94 rounds of ammunition of AK 47, a Chinese pistol and its magazine and a pouch. This hideout, from where we recovered was from a cave during the operation with Dharamsal Police and it was on a cliff," said Major N S Mann.

Further he mentioned that the operation helped in preventing any untoward incident that the militants might have planned in the region.

"According to our ground sources, the story behind the recovered items goes back to last year when Lashkar-e-Taiba militants were infiltrating from POK (Pakistan occupied Kashmir) to India in the month of March. After that when encounter started with them in Chorgala, they had fled the place in haste leaving some stuff behind. Their supporters had safely hidden that stuff in hideouts. We were getting continuous information about it," added Major Mann.

The restive region of Jammu and Kashmir has witnessed numerous militant attacks, insurgency, and infiltration from across the border in the last two decades.

The Himalayan region is one of the world's most militarised zones, with India deploying close to half a million troops to quell a rebellion that was triggered off in 1989.

Since Kashmir first witnessed insurgency in 1980s, nearly 50,000 people have been killed in the strife-torn region. (ANI)