Indian Army Claims to Have Killed 2 Pakistani Intruders in Jammu & Kashmir

According to Indian Army officials, the intruders wearing combat dresses of Pakistani regulars were assisted by the heavy fire of machine guns, mortars, and rockets from the Pakistani posts. The movement was detected by the army men deployed along the LoC and they fired on the intruders.

New Delhi (Sputnik) — The Indian Army claims to have successfully foiled an attempt of infiltration by intruders suspected to be from the Pakistani Border Action Team (BAT) on New Year's Eve in the Naugam sector of the Line of Control (de facto border) on Monday morning.

— Chinar Corps — Indian Army (@ChinarcorpsIA) December 31, 2018

"Army foiled a major BAT attempt to strike a forward post along the Line of Control in Naugam sector in the early hours of Sunday", an Army spokesman said.

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The Indian Army suspects the intruders came with the intention of carrying out a major attack on the eve of the new year. 

"From the recovery, it was estimated that BAT team intended to carry out a gruesome attack on the Army forward post in the Naugam sector. The alertness and counter-action of troops foiled such an attempt", said a report by news agency ANI.

The official said that a heavy exchange of fire had been underway since last night.

"Our troops conducted prolonged search operations in thick jungles and difficult terrain conditions to ascertain the situation, which confirmed the elimination of two likely Pakistani soldiers and resulted in the recovery of a large cache of warlike stores. The search operations are still under way in the sector to sanitise the area", media reports quoted an Army official as saying.

According to reports, the Indian Army will ask Pakistan to take back the remains of deceased individuals.

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There was no immediate response from Pakistani authorities on the incident.

According to Indian Home Ministry data, in 2018 India witnessed more than 600 ceasefire violations along the Line of Control and international border between India and Pakistan in Jammu and Kashmir. This is the highest number of cross-border exchanges initiated from the Pakistani side in the last eight years.

Relations between the two South Asian neighbours have been historically tense with both of them accusing each other of ceasefire violations at the disputed border.