Express News Service
SRINAGAR: Five militants were killed in two separate encounters with security forces in Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday. Gunfire resumed in the border district of Rajouri after a lull of nearly 16 hours.In the last 24 hours, five gunfights have taken place in Jammu and Kashmir. Seven local militants and five security personnel including a JCO have been killed.
A police official said based on specific inputs, a joint cordon and search operation was launched by the police, CRPF and army at Tulran village in Shopian on Monday. The militants were given an opportunity to surrender. “However, they turned down the offer and fired on our troops. The fire was retaliated, triggering an encounter,” said the official.
The operation was suspended by security men at night and resumed in the early hours of Tuesday, when three local militants were killed. They were identified as Danish Hussain Dar (of Shopian), Yawar Hussain Naikoo and Mukhtar Ahmed Shah (of Ganderbal).
“Mukhtar was involved in target killing of non-local vendor Vinder Paswan in Lal Bazar area of Srinagar on October 5,” the police official said. On Tuesday morning, another gunfight erupted at Feeripora, Shopian. “Two local militants of Lashkar were killed,” the police official said.
General officer Commanding (GoC) of Indian Army’s Srinagar-based 15 Corps, Lieutenant General DP Pandey said anti-militancy operations launched by troops in the last few days were based on human intelligence and should not be linked to incidents that took place in Srinagar or elsewhere.
Pandits asked to stay backAfter the targetted killing of three minority community members and a non-local street vendor by militants last week, the government has directed migrant Kashmiri Pandit employees not to leave the Valley and told officers to post them in secure zones. Officials said security measures for migrant employees, Sikhs, Kashmiri Pandits and non-migrant labourers have been tightened.
