Infiltration bid foiled at Nowshera in poll-bound J&K, two terrorists killed

An infiltration bid has been foiled at Nowshera in poll-bound Jammu and Kashmir with at least two terrorists killed, the Indian Army announced on Monday.

“OP KANCHI. Based on inputs from intelligence agencies and @JmuKmrPolice regarding a likely inflitration bid, an anti-infiltration operation was launched by #IndianArmy on the intervening night of 08-09 Sep 24 in general area Lam, #Nowshera,” the army’s White Knight Corps said in a post on X (formerly Twitter).

“Two terrorists have been neutralised and a large quantity of war like stores including Two AK-47s and one Pistol thus far recovered. Search operation is in progress,” it added.

The development comes just days before assembly polls are to be held in the Union territory, the first such exercise here since December 2014 and five years after both the abrogation of Article 370 from the Constitution of India, and the bifurcation of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union territories: J&K and Ladakh.

In the first phase, voting will be held on September 18, followed by the second phase exactly a week later, and the third and final leg on October 1. The counting is scheduled for October 8, the same day as Haryana, where the polling and counting dates were revised from October 1 and 4 to October 5 and 8, respectively. This led to the counting date being changed for J&K as well; the original date was October 4, as in Haryana.

Major parties in the fray here are the National Conference and the Congress, which are contesting as an alliance, and the BJP, the country’s governing party since May 2014.