SRINAGAR, India, Militants attempting to infiltrate from Pakistan into India attacked Indian troops in the Jammu and Kashmir region, injuring a porter working with the unit, officials said on Sunday.
The incident occurred Saturday in the Sabjian sector of the Poonch district, southwest of Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir.Xinhua news agency quoted a military official as saying troops returned fire and launched a search operation to apprehend the militants.
The attack comes one week after an Indian army officer was injured by militant firein a dense forested area in the region’s Kupwara district — where the week prior, Col. Santosh Mahadik, commanding officer of the 41 Rashtriya Rifles, was killed in a militant ambush.
Indian security forces have made repeated contact with suspected Pakistani infiltrators during a sweep that began Nov. 13 in a wooded area known as Haji Naka.
Lashkar-e-Taiba — a Pakistan-based terrorist group that was implicated in the 2008 Mumbai attacks that killed more than 160 people — claimed responsibility for killing Mahadik.
Since 1989, India has fought groups such as the LeT in Jammu and Kashmir, a region shared in administration with Pakistan. Both countries have fought three major wars since the 1940s, two exclusively over the territory, and have since engaged in sporadic cross-border firing.
India has accused Pakistan of supporting the LeT and other groups, but the Pakistani government says such support is only moral and political in nature.
By Fred Lambert
UPI NEWS
