A suspected Pakistani militant was shot dead by security forces during an encounter at Hajin village in North Kashmir’ s Bandipora district on Tuesday, Defence sources said.
They said security forces cordoned Parrey Mohalla locality of Hajin town in the morning after receiving information that a group of militants was hiding there. While the cordon was being laid, an exchage of fire took place as militants attempted to escape the cordoned area.
During the exchage of fire, a Rashtriya Rifles trooper Naik Pramood Kumar was wounded. He was immediately evacuated to hospital for treatment.
Sources said that during the exchange of fire, a militant was killed and ammunition was recovered from his possession. Another militant reportedly escaped from the area.
Sources said that a hundreds if locals took to streets demanding body of the slain militant for burial. However, as per the procedure adopted by the authorities the body of the foreign militant was not handed over to the local people. The people later held the funeral prayers in absentia.
A police official identified the slain militant as Abu Surag from Pakistan and said that after doing postmortem of his body at Mansbal Army Camp, his body was handed over to local Auqaf Committee in birder town of Uri where he was buried.
This is the fourth time in past two months that militants and security forces locked horns in Hajin area. On the previous three occasions the militants managed to escape. Sources said that a group of lashkar e Tayyeba militants was active in the area.