India

To say snipers have come to Kashmir ‘premature’, Army looking into reports, says Army chief Rawat

Indian Army chief General Bipin Rawat Monday, at the sidelines of an event told reporters that the Army was looking into reports of snipers entering Kashmir to target forces personnel, PTI reported. This occurs after three defense personnel were killed in sniper attacks by Jaish-e-Mohammed militants since mid-September.

The strikes have led to law enforcement agencies revising their strategies to foil further attacks.

While responding to the recent attacks, the Army chief said the security force was studying whether the attacks were carried out by snipers.

“Whether these attacks have been done by snipers or not, this is something we are still studying. But to say that snipers have infiltrated and that they have sniper weapons…We have not found any sniper weapon,” Rawat said.

He said to say snipers have come into the Valley was “premature”.

ALSO READ: Militants in Kashmir have sniper rifles, could use night vision, stealth to shoot high profile targets, say officials

Security agencies have said that on intelligence inputs, they believe that at least two separate ‘buddy’ groups of Jaish-e-Mohammed comprising two militants each entered Kashmir in early September and have established themselves in South Kashmir’s Pulwama district with the help of some overground supporters of the outfit.

Rawat said normal weapons could have been used to target the security personnel in the recent attacks as a good rifle has the range of 200-300 metres.

“I always believe in commenting when I have concrete evidence… To say that, yes, we have been able to trace some  snipers and that we are fully aware that people have been trained in sniping,” he said.

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