Two militants of banned Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) outfit were killed in a ‘surgical operation’ by a joint party of police and Army at Kaigam village in south Kashmir’s Tral sub-district on Sunday afternoon. An Armyman was wounded in the brief gunfight who has been hospitalised.
Defence spokesman in Srinagar lt Col NN Joshi said that the operation was launched following a specific information regarding presence of militants in the village, 35 kilometers south of Srinagar.
“As the cordon was being tightened around the suspected area where the terrorists were hiding, the terrorists opened a heavy volume of indiscriminate fire following which an intense exchange of fire ensued”, Joshi said. The encounter continued till 6 pm resulting into death of two JeM militants, believed to be Pakistani nationals. They have been identified as Adil Pathan and Tchota Burmee, who were active in the area for past one year.
local sources said that Pathan and Burmee were a detached JeM group that worked independent of Hizbul Mujahideen and lashkar-e-Tayyeba cadre. Police said with the death of this group, the JeM outfit was wiped out from the area. Two AK series rifles and other war-like stores have been recovered from the site of encounter. One Army soldier who sustained a gunshot wound was immediately evacuated and his condition is reported to be stable.