The Kupwara encounter site terrorists’ Steyr assault rifle was Austrian

SRINAGAR: The security agencies are concerned after the Army personnel recovered Steyr AUG assault rifle, made in Austria, from the terrorists killed in an encounter in the Keran sector of Jammu and Kashmir’s Kupwara district on Thursday.

A gunfight had ensued after the security forces detected suspicious movement along the Line of Control and on being challenged, the militants opened fire. “Two foreign terrorists were killed. Arms and ammunition, war-like stores and a Pakistani identity card were recovered from them,” sources said, adding that the Steyr AUG was among the recoveries made.

The Steyr AUG is a selective-fire, bullpup assault rifle with a conventional gas-piston-operated action that fires from a closed bolt. It is designed as a modular weapon system that could be quickly configured as an assault rifle, a carbine, a submachine gun and even an open-bolt light machine gun.

Militants have already been using the US-made M-4 carbine rifles. Several of these were recovered by security forces from militants killed both in Jammu region as well as Kashmir. “The M-4s are mostly used by top commanders and Pakistan militants operating in J&K,” a security officer said, who explained that these rifles are sophisticated and have night vision devices.