A soldier takes his position behind a wall after some gunmen attacked an Army camp in north Kashmir’s Langate in Handwara district, Kupwara, on October 6 2016. Tribune photo: Amin War

Majid Jahangir

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, October 6

Three militants were killed in a gun fight in north Kashmir’s Kupwara district in the wee hours of Thursday after they attacked an army base, which was repulsed.Police said the militants were killed at Langate, Handwara, 75 km from here, when the Army and Special Operation Group of J&K Police were carrying out searches after militants attacked the battalion headquarters of 30 Rashtriya Rifles.“Later, the area was cordoned off and during searches a gun fight broke in which three militants were killed,” police said. The operation is still underway.

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The slain militants were in combat dresses.Commanding officer of 30 RR Col Rajiv Saharan told the media that a large quantity of arms and ammunition was recovered from the slain militants. “A GPS, maps, radio sets, metric sheets, medicines and food items were recovered. The medicines had Pakistani markings on them, suggesting that the militants were Pakistanis,” he said. “We are analysing the metric sheets and maps.”The identity of the militants could not be established.The attack in Langate comes three days after the militants made an abortive bid to storm an army base in Baramulla in which a BSF jawan was killed and another injured.Meanwhile, the Army foiled three infiltration bids during the intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday in Nowgam in Kupwara and Rampur in Uri along the Line of Control in Kashmir. Army claimed that the infiltrators were assisted by Pakistani posts.Following the surgical strikes, these were the first infiltration attempts from across to sneak into Kashmir.  Pakistan had violated ceasefire in Machil in Kupwara sector on Wednesday.