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| Afghanistan/South Asia |
| BSF has seized enough weapons in Kashmir to arm 10 battalions |
| 2005-07-24 |
| Border Security Force (BSF) during the past 13 years of counter insurgency operations in Jammu and Kashmir has seized enough weapons to raise 10 battalions of security forces, BSF Director General R S Mooshahary has said. "By conservative estimates, the weapons recovered by BSF during operations in Kashmir valley is enough to arm 10 new battalions of the force," Mooshahary told PTI during his two-day visit to the valley recently. BSF has recovered nearly 10,000 AK series rilfes, around 5,000 pistols of various makes and eight lakh rounds of ammunition during the counter-insurgency operation in the state, he said. The recoveries included 11,301 magazines, 251 universal machine guns and light machine guns, 233 wireless sets, 134 binoculars, 109 twelve bore guns and 114 revolvers, he added. BSF has been instrumental in eliminating the top hierarchy of Hizbul Mujahideen, Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad. The force has killed 2,625 militants and apprehended 9,715 ultras till June 2005, the BSF DG said. Among the major successes against militants, BSF eliminated Gazi Baba of Jaish and Mazoor Zahid Choudhry of Lashkar who was the mastermind behind the attack on the Akshardham temple in Gujarat, he said. Mooshahary, however, said the successes had come at a cost as BSF lost 694 personnel while 3,721 were injured in the valley during counter-insurgency operations. |
| Posted by:Paul Moloney |