1 more killed in Samba, BSF now says militants may have come in

A day after a militant attack left five people dead in the same area where the BSF claimed to have foiled the infiltration bid on Friday, BSF Director General A K Mitra said a few militants might have managed to sneak into Indian borders taking advantage of the night. This admission comes as intelligence agency reports indicate that as many as 12 militants may have managed to infiltrate into India and the same are responsible for the Samba militant attack.

“It is possible that some infiltrators may have managed to sneak in that night. Though no trace of any such infiltrator has so far been found, I won’t be surprised if some of them were able to take the advantage of darkness and heavy firing to get inside Indian borders,” BSF DG A K Mitra told reporters here.

While the security force has initially said that the bid had been foiled, intelligence reports said that militants who entered the country have already spilt into three to four groups and are likely to attempt more such attacks in the coming days.

“The 10-12 infiltrators would have come with a different objective. While two groups appear to have been neutralised over the past two days, the others are still active,” an intelligence official said, adding that there were no indications of any militant movement in the area before the “infiltration bid”.

Sources say that the Samba sector was taken out of the operational control of the Army two years ago after the BSF volunteered to take command. There have been grumblings at South Block about the ‘inept’ handling of the Samba encounter by the BSF.

Moreover, intelligence agencies now fear more incidents of violence in the area in the coming days. “There are likely to be more such incidents in the area as the remaining are active. These are attempts to disrupt the election process,” an official said.

Meanwhile, security forces on Monday shot dead another militant, who is suspected to have sneaked out a day after the fierce gunbattle in Samba area, while a jawan injured in the fighting succumbed taking the toll in the encounter to 10.