Two militants killed in frontier district,
24 casualties in J&K so far
Kupwara, May 3: After a hiatus of over two months, joint forces killed two militants in the Pichand area of North Kashmir’s Kupwara district on Wednesday.
The last encounter between joint forces and militants raged in Potagampora Awantipora area of South Kashmir’s Pulwama district on the last day of February in which two militants were killed.
Divulging information about today’s encounter, police sources told news agency Kashmir News Trust that the area of Pichand in Machil was cordoned off after receiving inputs about the movement of militants. During the exchange of fire, two militants have been killed. The search operation was underway till the filing of this report.
Sources added that the identity of the militants is being ascertained and prima facie it seems the slain militants were part of a group that has infiltrated this part of Kashmir.
With the killing of these 2 militants, this year till date, 10 militants including 6 infiltrators have been killed. Four local militants were killed in two encounters in Kashmir Valley. Joint forces also killed 6 infiltrators while in the militant strikes, 8 civilians including two kids and a Kashmiri Pandit succumbed. A soldier Pawan Kumar was also killed in one of the encounters in Awantipora Pulwama while in the Bhatadhurian area of in Poonch, 5 soldiers were charred to death while one sustained critical injuries when militants attacked an army vehicle with grenades using UBGL. The slain soldiers were identified as Harkrishan Singh, Mandeep Singh, Debashish Baswal, Kulwant Singh, and Sewak Singh.
Militants managed to escape from 3 encounter sites in Kashmir. After exchanging fire with the joint forces at Rudbugh village of Central Kashmir’s Budgam, Mitrigam village of South Kashmir’s Pulwama, and Chakoora village of Shopian militants managed to break the cordon.
Two infiltrators were killed in Balakote Poonch while another was killed in the Saidpora forward area of Tangdhar Kupwara. In the same Kupwara district, an infiltrator was killed in Jebdi Tanghdar area along the Line of Control and today 2 more infiltrators died in a firefight.
Four militants were neutralized in encounters at the main market Budgam and Potgampora Awantipora. The slain militants were identified as Arbaz Ahmed Mir of Putrigam and Shahid Ahmed Sheikh of Kesrigam Kakapora, Aquib Mushtaq of Malangpora, and Aijaz Ahmed Bhat of Syedabad Pustana Tral all natives from Pulwama district.
Militants also lobbed a grenade at Eidgah Srinagar resulting in injuries to a civilian. In a militant attack, the son of a slain policeman Asif Ganai son of late Ali Muhammad was injured after he was fired upon by militants at his native village of Hasanpora Bijbehara. Militants also shot dead JK Bank security guard Sanjay Sharma son of Kashi Nath at his native Achan village of Pulwama district. Suspected militants also shot at and injured a shopkeeper Auqib Ismail Bhat in the Marhama Bijbehara area of South Kashmir’s Anantnag district.
This year, January witnessed 11 killings including 7 civilians, 2 infiltrators and 2 local militants.
Five persons including 2 militants, one infiltrator, a soldier, and a Kashmiri Pandit were killed in February.
In March the militancy-related incidents were all-time low. Only one infiltrator was killed in Jebdi Tanghdar area along LoC in Kupwara.
In April 5 soldiers were killed in Poonch and in the ongoing month of May today, joint forces killed two infiltrators. [KNT]
