One soldier killed, four injured as army foils BAT action along LoC in Kashmir

Srinagar: A soldier and a Pakistani 'intruder' were killed, and four army personnel, including a Captain, were injured as the Army foiled a Border Action Team (BAT) attack along the Line of Control (LoC) in Kupwara district, north Kashmir, on Saturday.

The encounter, the second in Kupwara in three days, began in the Kamkari area following “specific intelligence inputs” about potential terrorist movements in the region. The Army confirmed that the deceased and injured soldiers were evacuated from the operation site while the gunfight was ongoing.

“Action by Border Action Team has been foiled by alert Indian Army troops on Saturday morning in the Kamkari sector," sources said. They added that one Pakistani intruder was killed, while two others managed to return to Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK) amid the intense gunfight that lasted for hours.

Defense experts noted that Pakistan's Special Services Group (SSG) forms the core of the BAT, with dreaded terrorists from Lashkar-e-Toiba, Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, and Jaish-e-Mohammad involved in trans-LoC actions up to a depth of one to three kilometers.

Cross-border raids by BATs typically involve six to seven Pakistani army soldiers mixed with a few terrorists, who conduct systematic reconnaissance of vulnerable spots and study the deployment and patrolling patterns of Indian troops along the 778-km long LoC.

BAT attacks had ceased in recent years after the Indo-Pak armies agreed to a ceasefire in February 2021.

Earlier, Army’s Chinar Corps posted on X, stating, "There has been an exchange of fire with unidentified personnel at a forward post in Kamkari, Macchal Sector on the Line of Control. One Pakistani person has been killed while two of our soldiers have suffered injuries and have been evacuated."

In recent months, there has been an increase in infiltration attempts along the LoC in Kashmir. This surge is a significant security concern, highlighting persistent efforts by militants to cross the border from Pakistan into Indian territory.

On Wednesday, a soldier and a terrorist were killed in a similar gunfight in the Trumkhan Top area of the same district. The gunfight ensued after security forces foiled an infiltration bid in the area.

In another incident on July 14, the Army foiled an infiltration bid along the LoC in the Keran sector of Kupwara, killing three unidentified terrorists during the anti-infiltration operation.