Territorial Army jawan killed by gunmen in J&K

Srinagar: The security forces have killed, at least, one suspected militant in a gunfight raging in Jammu and Kashmir’s southern Pulwama district since Thursday afternoon. In neighbouring Anantnag district, gunmen believed to be separatist militants shot dead an off-duty Territorial Army jawan.

The officials here said that, at least, two more militants have been trapped in Panjran village of Pulwama’s Lassipora area where the security forces including Army’s 44 Rashtriya Rifles, J&K police’s counterinsurgency Special Operations Group (SOG) and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) launched a cordon-and-search operation on Thursday afternoon after learning about the presence of militants there.

They said that the fighting broke out as the security forces zeroed in on the militants’ hideout. “One of the two to three militants trapped in the village has been killed in the ongoing gunfight at Panjran,” a police official here said.

The officials said that the security forces have launched a similar operation also in Batpora-Souch village of South Kashmir’s Kulgam district following inputs about the presence of militants there. Soon after the security forces moved in the village, mobile internet services were suspended in entire Kulgam district “as a precautionary measure.”

A report from neighbouring Anantnag said that gunmen, believed to be militants, barged into the house of Territorial Army jawan Manzoor Ahmed Baig in the district’s Sadoora village and shot and critically wounded him. Baig, posted with a unit of the Army’s 34 Rashtriya Rifles in Shopian district and currently on Eid leave, was rushed to Anantnag’s district hospital where he succumbed soon thereafter.

On Wednesday, suspected militants had shot dead a woman identified as Nigeena in Narbal village of Pulwama’s Kakapora area. A minor boy was injured in the shootout.