Locals under pressure from militants to help them flee: CRPF

General Rawat’s stern message came after three soldiers faced heavy stone pelting at Parray Mohalla of Bandipore in north Kashmir when they were about to launch an operation against the militants holed up there on Tuesday.

Alerted by the stone pelters, the militants got an opportunity to fire hand grenades and empty a few magazines from AK-rifles, leaving three jawans dead and some others, including CRPF Commandant Cheetah, injured.

The army chief had said security forces in Jammu and Kashmir were facing higher casualties due to the manner in which the local population was preventing them from conducting the operations and “at times even helping the terrorists to escape”.

From Agencies, Featured image courtesy amazonaws