An army officer, two lashkar-e-Tayyeba militants and two policemen died in a fierce encounter in a remote village of north Kashmir’s Kupwara district. Six security personnel and a civilian lady were wounded in the gun-battle that started on Monday evening and continued till Tuesday afternoon.
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah offered condolences on the demise of the army and police personnel and appreciated their “bravery to combat the militancy and protect the lives and property of the people of the State”.
A police spokesman said that its sleuths had generated specific information about presence of militants at Gund Zoonareshi village in Kralpora pocket of Kupwara that led to a joint cordon and search operation by the Police and Army. “During the search operation, militants fired upon the search party triggering an encounter,” a spokesman said.
In the initial bout of fire on Monday evening, there were casualties on both sides, but the operation was withheld for the night. The encounter resumed at the crack of dawn on Tuesday and culminated after the death of two holed up leT militants.
Two policemen — head-constable Muhammad Shafi and constable Riyaz Ahmad — and Junior Commissioned Officer Kakan Vari were also killed in the gunfight. Police said that four policemen and two Army jawans were injured during the encounter, besides a lady Shahmaali Begum who was hit in her leg.The residential house where militants were hiding was razed to ground due to heavy shelling.A huge cache of arms and ammunition was recovered from the encounter site, which remained under cordon due to searches in the area till late on Tuesday evening.
In another incident, a policeman was shot at and injured in lalchowk area of south Kashmir’s Anantnag town.The attacker, suspected to be a Hizbul Mujahideen militant, snatched the service rifle of the wounded cop who is battling for his life in a premier Srinagar hospital.