Pakistan made eatables, winter clothes among items recovered from Poonch encounter site

POONCH: In a joint search operation on Thursday, security forces recovered assorted eatables bearing Pakistan’s markings, besides arms and ammunition, clothes and medicines from the encounter site in Poonch district, where two terrorists were killed during an infiltration bid on Wednesday.

“Recovery of gloves, medicines, water resistant and warm clothes, night vision devices and other items indicate they were ready for ‘forest survival’ in higher reaches of J&K without any local support,” defence PRO (Jammu) Lieutenant Colonel Suneel Bartwal said.

The duo was spotted crossing the Line of Control on Tuesday night in Mandi sub-sector of Poonch. A search-cum-combing operation was launched by Army and J&K Police to hunt down the terrorists. When cornered, the duo opened indiscriminate firing on the security forces, who retaliated, leading to a fierce gun battle during which the two terrorists were killed.

During the search operation after the encounter, which continued till Thursday, the Army recovered a huge cache of arms and eatables, indicating the infiltrators were Pakistanis and had entered the Indian territory prepared for a long haul.

The recoveries include an AK-47, four AK-47 magazines, one pistol with two magazines, 44 pistol rounds, grenades, a binocular with night vision device, a rain jacket, a pair each of shoes and gloves, two trousers and jackets each, a windcheater, two shawls, a body warmer and and two mufflers, several pairs of socks, rucksacks, walking sticks, a syringe, batteries, wire-cutters, watch, knife, lighters, bandages; several medicines, one bed rope and two blank diaries.

Colonel Bartwal said Pakistan-made medicines and eatables like apples, dates, salt, namkeens, almonds, biscuits, parathas and chutney etc. also were recovered from the encounter site.