Sunday, November 6 2005 16:51 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Srinagar: Notwithstanding the devastation caused by the killer quake on both sides of the LoC, there was no let up in infiltration bids by militants wanting to crossover into Jammu and Kashmir, a senior army officer said today(Nov 6, 2005).

"There is no let up in infiltration bids or terrorist activities despite the major earthquake on October 8," Major General V K Singh, Chief of Staff of Srinagar-based 15 corps, told reporters here today.

He said this year there have been 39 infiltration bids, all of them, which were foiled by troops on the LoC resulting in killing of 147 militants as compared to 40infiltration attempts in the corresponding period last year, which left 75 ultras dead.

Though the infiltration attempts this year were less, the number of persons wanting to cross over to this side were more as evident from the number of ultras killed this year, Maj Gen Singh said.

Giving details of recent operations, he said the army recovered a large cache of arms, ammunition and explosives hidden by militants near LoC in separate operations in North Kashmir on the eve of Eid-ul-Fitr.

On observing suspicious movement along the LoC, troops carried out a search in Torna area in Uri sector of Baramulla district on November 2 and recovered the cache, Singh said.

Hidden between two rocks, the cache comprised two ak 47 rifles, five Chinese pistols, two under barrel grenade launchers with 24 ubgl grenades, 43 hand grenades, three radio sets, nearly four kgs of plastic explosive, 10 detonators, 575 rounds of ak ammunition and 152 rounds of pistol ammunition.