In a recent terror attack in the Rajouri district in Jammu and Kashmir, the Indian Army said that retired Pakistani soldiers were among the group of militants.
"Some of the terrorists have been found to be retired soldiers...Pakistan wants to bring foreign terrorists here as there are no local recruits here. We are trying to eliminate the foreign terrorists," Northern Army Commander Lieutenant General Upendra Dwivedi said.
Further asked if Pakistan intends to push more terrorists in the coming months to disrupt upcoming elections, including the Lok Sabha polls, he answered in the affirmative without going into details.
Dwivedi made this statement yesterday after he visited the Kalakote area of the Rajouri district in Jammu and Kashmir and reviewed the operational situation in the region.
On Thursday two foreign terrorists of the proscribed Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) outfit were eliminated in a 36-hours-long gunfight with security forces in the Bajimaal area of Rajouri's Darmsal.
Commander of 14 Sector Rashtriya Rifles Brigadier Soumeet Patnaik informed that security forces safely evacuated trapped civilians, including women and children.
During the gunfight, five army personnel - Capt M V Pranjal, Capt Shubham Gupta, Hav Abdul Majid, Lance Naik Sanjay Bisht, and Paratrooper Sachin Laur – laid down their lives.
The Indian Army located the hideout in the forests of Rajouri district that was being used by terrorists to carry out their operations in the recent Rajouri encounter in which five army personnel lost their lives.
Sharing pictures of the "small cave," the army officials said that such hideouts were "relatively difficuLt to detect and breach."
The mortal remains of the personnel were brought to the Army General Hospital in Jammu from Rajouri where a wreath-laying ceremony was organised.
Lt General said operations have been intensified in the border districts of Rajouri and Poonch to clear the region of more than two dozen foreign terrorists within a year. The killing of the two dreaded foreign terrorists is a major setback for Pakistan's plans to destabilise the region, said the army commander.
