Srinagar: Three to four terrorists are believed to have carried out the deadly attack on an Army convoy in the Gulmarg sector that left four people, including two soldiers, dead, a senior police official said on Saturday.
The search operation, which entered the second day, was halted at the last light on Friday and resumed on Saturday morning, the official said.
“According to the evidence we got from there, 3-4 militants were involved in the attack,” Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Baramulla, Mohammad Zaid Malik told reporters in the north Kashmir district.
The police, Army and paramilitary forces are carrying out the search operation, which has been extended to Baba Reshi and forest areas in Gulmarg as well as the built-up area before it, the SSP said.
The SSP said security forces had been carrying out many input-based search operations on the militants in the Pattan-Kreeri area of the Baramulla district in the days ahead of the attack.
Two soldiers and two Army porters were killed in the attack on Thursday, while another porter and a soldier were injured. Terrorists opened fire on an Army vehicle, 6 km from the tourist hotspot Gulmarg in the Botapathri area, when it was headed for the Nagin post in the Affarwat range.
On Friday, security forces deployed drones and helicopters for a massive search operation in the area and along the Line of Control (LoC) in the Gulmarg sector.
Security forces were also using human and technical intelligence inputs to aid the search operation launched to trace and neutralise the terrorists behind the attack, officials said.
Senior officers of the police and Army are overseeing the operation.
The area is completely dominated by the Army and there were reports recently that a terrorist group had infiltrated during early summer and taken shelter in the higher reaches of the Affarwat range.(PTI)
PAFF claims responsibility for Botapathri attack
The People’s Anti-Fascist Front (PAFF), believed to be an offshoot of the Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) outfit, has claimed responsibility for the Botapathri terrorist attack by releasing a video on social media.
The PAFF has released a video that showed a terrorist firing a rocket at the army vehicle from the dense forest in the Botapathri area.
While showing concern at the use of a rocket by the terrorists, officials confirmed that the rocket did not hit the army vehicle, but fell some distance away from it. Had the rocket hit the vehicle it would have caused greater damage.
Four people, including two army soldiers and two civilian porters, were killed when terrorists attacked an army vehicle in the Botapathri area of Gulmarg on Thursday.
“A rocket was fired by the terrorists towards the army vehicle in Botapathri, but it didn’t hit the intended target and fell near the vehicle without causing any damage.”
“The firing of the rocket is a cause of concern as this is the first time that such a weapon was used in any recent attack on the army in Jammu and Kashmir. Had the rocket hit the vehicle, it could have led to more damage,” officials said.
“The terrorist group that carried out the attack in Botapathri has not recently infiltrated. It appears that it was a group of four terrorists, who carried out the attack and had infiltrated earlier this year.”
“We feel that the group, comprising mostly of foreigners, was already in the forests of Baramulla district for the last few months and the same group carried out the attack. The tracks they have used while fleeing after the attack suggest that they have returned to the same area from where they were operating,” the officials said.
“One of the terrorists of this group is a local while the other three are foreigners. The security forces are working on the leads they are getting to track down the group,” they said.
