HANDWARA, OCT 7: A joint security operation in the NagdaNar forest area of Handwara led to the detection and destruction of an old hideout and the recovery of a substantial cache of arms, ammunition and other incriminating material, officials said on Wednesday.
Acting on specific intelligence inputs, a joint team of Handwara Police, 21 Rashtriya Rifles and 92 Battalion CRPF launched a search operation in the forest area. During systematic searches of the terrain, the team detected an old hideout, which was subsequently destroyed after the recovery of the concealed material.
The recovered cache included one AK-47 rifle, three grenades, 857 AK rounds, 192 PIKA rounds, eight AK magazines, one silencer and 83 pistol rounds, besides other incriminating material.
The recovery of the large quantity of ammunition and weapon-related material from a concealed forest hideout is being treated as significant from the security perspective, particularly given the presence of an assault rifle, grenades, magazines and ammunition of different calibres.
Following the recovery, FIR Number 252/2026 under relevant sections of law has been registered at Police Station Handwara, and further investigation has been initiated to establish the origin of the weapons and ammunition, identify those linked to the abandoned hideout and determine the circumstances under which the cache was concealed in the forest.
The operation also underscores the continued focus of the security agencies on intelligence-based searches of vulnerable forest areas to detect concealed arms caches and prevent their possible use for sustaining unlawful activities.
