An Army personnel and a militant have been killed in an ongoing gun-fight that erupted after the Army tried to foil an infiltration attempt by militants in the Machil sector of the frontier Kupwara district near Line of Control (LoC) in North Kashmir.
The encounter began on Tuesday morning when the soldiers from 56 Rashtriya Rifles manning the LoC intercepted the militant group. The encounter began in the dense forest area near LoC, according to ANI.
Four soldiers injured during the encounter have been admitted to hospital.
The total number of militants holed up is unknown yet, although Army sources told NDTV the militants seem to be well-trained and heavily armed, and are taking advantage of the dense forest cover.
No militant organisation has so far claimed to be behind the infiltration attempt.
Infiltration attempts by the militants across the LoC have spiralled this year, with at least 50 militants reportedly crossing the border over the past five months. There was no reported incident of infiltration in the first four months of 2015, according to NDTV.
After the Peoples' Democratic Party and Bharatiya Janata Party coalition government was formed in the state, a series of violent attacks on police and Border Security Force personnel has happened in summer capital Srinagar and its outskirts. The lull in the violence was broken ahead of the first state legislature session last month when three policemen were killed in the heart of Srinagar city.
A spurt in the attacks all over the Valley has put to rest speculations of revocation of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA).
