SRINAGAR: Official sources said the Army and the Border Security Forces on Nov.25 jointly surrounded Sopore town, a stronghold of the Hizbulul Mujahideen Friday night, to flush out militants and their sympathizers.

During the house to house searches in the morning, militants fired upon the Army and BSF personnel injuring an Army officer, a BSF officer and four Army jawans.

The Border Security Force has erected bunkers at Kral Teang where some houses were set afire by the militants; the joint operation was still going on when reports last came in.

Entire township of Sopore was sealed and escapes routes plugged effectively in the morning by the security forces.

The troops recovered three AK rifles from one of the encounter places, the spokesman said.

To divert the troops’ attention the militants torched some houses in Muslim Pir and Kraltang areas and set ablaze a Gurdwara in one of the localities sealed by the troops to flush out the militants, he said,

He said the Army authorities have requisitioned the services of fire brigades to fight the fire. Fire tenders from nearby Baramulla, Magam and Pattan also rushed to Sopore to control the fire.

“The trapped militants have tried to, contact their controllers and contacts outside the cordon through wireless sets. The intercepted messages said militants were pleading for the All Party Huriyat conference leaders to call for a Valley wide strike and have also called for military parties to be brought to Sopore, spokesman said.

The intrepid directions indicated that the militants have been conveyed that they should torch buildings and open fire without bothering for casualties to the locals whom they described: mukhbaris (informers) who had called the Army to carry out the operations against militants, the spokesman said.

The operations were continuing and further details were awaited, the spokesman said.

The residents of Iqbal colony, Baramulla, took on a procession on Friday after the security forces handed over a body of a person allegedly taken into custody last week during the searches.

Another body was handed over to Awanupura police station by the security forces.

One militant was killed and 17 militants, most belonging to the major militant outfits namely Hizbul Mujahideen, Ikhwanul Muslimeen and Muslim Mujahideen, were arrested in other parts of the Valley during the period.

Article extracted from this publication >>  December 3, 1993