Lt. General Gurmeet Singh on Wednesday provided facts from an ongoing operation in Kiran Sector of Kupwara, and assured that the Indian Army was in control of combating the infiltrated militants in the area.
General Singh also rubbished media reports of the militants taking over a village and some army posts, and asked the press to not believe in the grapevine information which they are getting.
"There is no village in the area of the cordon. I find it absolutely absurd what rumours are saying that some posts have been occupied by the militants. My troops are in control of this area," General Singh said.
Singh also said that on the night of 24 September there was a desperate and massive infiltration attempt in the area, at which time Indian troops on ground had seen 10 to 12 dead bodies of the militants in that area.
"The status of the operation at this moment is that today is the ninth day of the operation. This infiltration was attempted by a strength of, I would put it as about, 30 to 40 militants, who had a concrete and specific input about their intentions. We were prepared for this challenge," General Singh said.
"You would appreciate that these are deliberate operations....We are never in a hurry to close the operations. We always want to be fully satisfied that the entire challenge has been taken on in this area," he added.
Stringing together the narrative of the last 24 hours, General Singh said: "Yesterday night as many as 12 militants from across had attempted to come to the cordon area. We also had input and observed that another 10 to 12, within the cordon area, were seen. There was an exchange of fire with them yesterday night. As early as 4:30 a.m. a minor movement in the cordon area was seen. If I go to the latest, as late as 2 p.m. this afternoon there was some fire which came from the cordon area."
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General Singh also appealed for calm, and assured that the Indian Army was committed to protect the territorial integrity of the country.
"We are your Army. We are doing work for the safety and security of our nation. Any violation of territorial integrity, any attempt of infiltration will never be accepted by us. The operations are going on and it is going on as per our directions. It is under our control. I would never like to hurry up these operations," Singh said.
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"We are prepared for all these challenges. This is our task. This is our role. Have faith in us," he added.
General Singh confirmed that the infiltrated militants were special troops who were very well trained. "This is very different from the trend we had seen in the earlier infiltration attempts," he added.
Five soldiers have been injured in the operation thus far, and have been confirmed to be in stable condition.
Pakistani border action teams comprising regulars and terrorists have carried out several attacks in Jammu and Kashmir in the recent past. The most gruesome amongst these are was the beheading of two Indian soldiers in January this year.