New Delhi: A major infiltration attempt to smuggle arms and drugs was thwarted by the Indian Army in which three people were arrested after a shootout near the border fence along the Line of Control in Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir, news agency PTI quoted officials as saying.

They are suspected to have received the arms and drug shipment from across the border

“One Army soldier and one of the arrested infiltrators were injured in the firing at forward Karmara village in Gulpur sector in the early hours of the day,” PTI quoted officials as saying. They said border troops detected suspicious movement and confronted the persons which resulted in a gunfight.

“The area was immediately sealed off and three people, one of them with a bullet wound in his leg, were nabbed along with a haul of drugs and weapons, while an Army soldier was also hurt,” the officials said.

The officials named the arrested smugglers as Mohd Farooq (26), who sustained a leg injury, Mohd Riaz (23) and Mohd Zubair (22), all residents of Karmara.

They are suspected to have received the arms and drug shipment from across the border and were attempting to smuggle it into this side when they were stopped by the troops.

The items recovered from the arrested smugglers included an AK rifle, two pistols, six grenades, an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) hidden inside a pressure cooker and 20 packets of presumed heroin.

The officials said the search operation in the area is still underway when last reports came in.