The Army on Friday recovered the bodies of six infiltrators who had sneaked across the Line of Control in the Gurez sector in the last week of March. The militants were part of a group of infiltrators, some of whom had been shot dead by the Indian Army soon after they sneaked in while others had been buried amid heavy snowfall.

Soon after 12 militants were killed by the Army after an eight-day encounter in Gurez, the Army had claimed six militants - one porter and a snow beater - had gotten buried under an avalanche after they were caught in inclement weather on the ridgeline. The Army’s claim stemmed from the interrogation of a foreign militant from the group who was captured after he managed to reach the Lolab Valley in Mid April.

“Six to eight militants had got killed after they got buried in an avalanche in Gurez sector in March this year. The bodies could not be retrieved at that time due to heavy accumulation of snow,” Defence spokesman Col Uma Maheswari said. “With the melting of snow, bodies of six militants have been recovered and the search is on to locate other two bodies,” he said. The Army had also recovered huge quantity of arms

and ammunition from the slain militants.