The Indian Army on Saturday said it foiled weapons smuggling at Kishanganga the river along the Line of Control (LoC) at Keran sector in north Kashmir’s Kupwara and recovered arms and ammunition sent across from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. An official said the weapons seized include 4 AK-47 Rifles, 8 magazines, and 240 rounds.
Officials said while patrolling, troops noticed some movement near Kishanganga river where two or three men were transporting some items in a tube through the river, and with timely action, the weapon smuggling was foiled by alert soldiers.
Corps Commander of the Srinagar-based Chinar Corps Lieutenant General BS Raju said this isn’t the first time something like this has happened in north Kashmir. This is yet another attempt by terrorists from PoK to smuggle arms and ammunition to their minions here and spread terrorism in India, he said. Raju said Pakistan often used these tricks to disturb peace in the area, and there has been no change in Islamabad’s intentions till now.
He said there have been attempts like this to smuggle in arms and ammunition in the Keran and Tangdhar in Jammu sector, and Punjab as well. He further said the main aim of this is to keep the people of Kashmir involved in terrorist activity. But the Army will stop weapons from coming in so that there is minimum loss of life. The Army needed the cooperation of the people in this so that we can stop terrorism, Raju said.
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Earlier, on June 27, security forces had arrested two drug and weapon smugglers and recovered a large cache of items from them in Kupwara district. Police had said that approximately 13.5kg of narcotics estimated to be worth Rs 65 crore, and arms and ammunition, including two pistols, four magazines, 55 pistol rounds, four hand grenades and10 detonators, had been recovered.