Anti-aircraft missile recovered

KUPWARA, OCT 1: For the first time in history of militancy in the State, the 24 Rashtriya Rifles on Wednesday recovered an anti-aircraft ...

KUPWARA, OCT 1: For the first time in history of militancy in the State, the 24 Rashtriya Rifles on Wednesday recovered an anti-aircraft missile in Pandodus forest, Hihama, on the Line of Actual Control (LoC) during a three-day search operation in the district.

The origin of the missile is being ascertained. However, the missile is said to have an effective range of 1500 mts. The Army’s copter pilots have been warned of the recovery.

The missile was unearthed from a hidden militant arms dump. Earlier, Army and police have recovered anti-aircraft guns. However, the recovery of the missile has lend a new dimension to militancy in the State.

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The fear that militants posses Surface-to-Air Missile (SAM) has always been there which has been proved with the recovery. The foreign militants, particularly, Afghans are considered trained in dealing with missiles, due to their prolonged participation in Afghan war, where they perfected the art by shooting down a number of soviet fighter bombers.

The US-madeshoulder fired heat seeking or the Stinger missiles and SAMs from Western countries were used with deadly precession by the Afghans against Soviet combat aircrafts, copters and transport aircraft. Army suspects that some of the SAMs might have found their way into Kashmir also.