GUWAHATI, Sept 19 - Army reinforcements have been rushed to the Line of Control (LoC) between India and Pakistan following the killing of 18 Army personnel by terrorists at Uri in Jammu and Kashmir yesterday, while Army sources said that the casualties were high because the temporary shelters and tents caught fire.
Army sources in Jammu and Kashmir told The Assam Tribune today that steps have been initiated to prevent terrorists from crossing over to India from Pakistan and additional troops have already started reaching the LoC.
A high level team of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has also reached the place of occurrence today for a detailed investigation into the incident.
Giving reasons for the high casualty rate, sources said that it happened because of the fact that the tents and temporary shelters, which housed the Army personnel, caught fire. At least 13 of the 18 Army personnel killed in the unfortunate incident, died due to the fire. The temporary tents and shelters were set up because of the routine turnover of units in the area.
Giving details of the incident, sources said that a group of heavily armed terrorists opened fire on an administrative base of one of the units of Indian Army at Uri in Kashmir at approximately 5.30 am yesterday. The firefight between the terrorists and Army lasted for around three hours,, during which four terrorists have been killed. All four killed were foreign terrorists and had some items with them which had Pakistani markings. Reports indicate that the slain terrorists belong to Jaish-e-Mohammed tanzeem. Four AK-47 rifles and four Under Barrel Grenade Launchers along with a large number of other war like stores were recovered from them.
Since the terrorists had some items with Pakistani markings, the Director General of Military Operations has already spoken to his counterpart in Pakistan and conveyed India�s serious concern over the issue.
Army sources said that all the intelligence agencies are working in close synergy with the security forces and regular intelligence inputs are received from concerned agencies and necessary action is being taken accordingly. Sources asserted that the Army is prepared to thwart the evil designs of the adversary and a befitting reply would be given.
The Army personnel killed in the incident have been identified as: Subedar Karnail Singh, Havildar Ravi Paul, Sepoy Rakesh Singh, Sepoy Javra Munda, Sepoy Naiman Kujur, Sepoy Uike Janrao, Havildar NS Rawat, Sepoy Ganesh Shankar, Naik SK Vidarthi, Sepoy Biswajit Ghorai, Lance Naik G Shankar, Sepoy G Dalai, Lance Naik RK Yadav, Sepoy Harinder Yadav, Sepoy TS Somnath, Havildar Ashok Kumar Singh and Sepoy Rajesh Kr Singh.
