NEW DELHI, 5 October 2003 — Seventeen terrorists have been killed in stepped up counterinsurgency operations by the Indian Army in Jammu and Kashmir, the Defense Ministry said yesterday.
“Two infiltration bids were foiled, two hide-outs were busted and a large quantity of arms, ammunition, communications equipment and warlike stores were recovered from the slain militants” in the operations conducted in a 24-hour period ending Friday night, the ministry said in a statement.
Alert troops in the Mendhar sector foiled an infiltration bid on Friday night, killing four terrorists near the Line of Control that divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan, the statement said.
Four AK-47 rifles were recovered in the operation. Another infiltration bid was foiled in the Kanzalwan-Gurez sector on the night of Thursday-Friday when four terrorists were killed. “In this operation too, a significant quantity of arms and ammunition was recovered, including 10 rocket propelled grenades, four hand grenades, one grenade launcher and two kilograms of explosives,” the statement said.
Troops busted two terrorist hide-outs in Kupwara and Baramullah districts.
Six terrorists were killed in the two operations and six AK-47 rifles, two radio sets and a pistol were recovered.
One of the terrorists killed in Kupwara had been identified as a Pakistani national, the statement said.
In another operation in the Kupwara sector, troops of the counterinsurgency Rashtriya Rifles force killed one terrorist during a cordon and search operation.
Meanwhile, nearly 15 years after the National Literacy Mission was set up, the Indian government is planning a sweeping adult literacy initiative in Jammu and Kashmir, it was reported yesterday.
Officials said the Kashmir campaign has so far existed only on paper because of the difficulties of implementing it in a state grappling with militancy.
Bureaucrats will visit Srinagar, the state’s summer capital, next week to recruit an army of almost 27,000 voluntary teachers.
