Army jawan, three militants killed in J&K gunbattle

Srinagar: Three militants and an Army jawan were killed and a civilian injured in a fire fight in Aglar Kandi village of Jammu and Kashmir’s southern Pulwama district on Monday evening.

The slain Army jawan has been identified as Sham Sunder and the injured civilian is Tariq Ahmed Bhat. J&K’s director general of police Shesh Paul Vaid confirmed the killing of the Army jawan and three militants.

The J&K police in a tweet late Monday night said that the militants were involved in the sneak attack carried out by them at a naka police party in Pulwama’s Rajpora area on Sunday. One policeman senior-grade constable Abdus Salaam was killed and another Munir Ahmed injured in this attack.

The police said that the identity of slain militants is being ascertained. Earlier while confirming the death of the Army jawan, SSP Pulwama Mohammad Aslam had told a local news agency GNS that he was injured during the encounter and was rushed to the Army’s 92-Base Hospital in Srinagar where he succumbed.

While the police said the civilian was injured when caught in crossfire, the locals alleged that he was shot at by the security forces “deliberately” as intense protests erupted in the area soon after the encounter began. Internet services in Pulwama have been withdrawn in view of growing tensions, a report said.

Police sources said that the J&K police’s counter-insurgency Special Operations Group (SOG) along with the Army’s 44 Rashtriya Rifles and the CRPF launched a cordon-and-search operation at Aglar Kandi after learning about the presence of militants in the village. Soon a fire fight broke out between the militants holed up inside a private house and the security forces, the official said.

In a similar clash, two Army soldiers and a militant were killed in Pulwama’s Samboora, Pampore last week. Two other militants who were trapped in the area escaped, however.

Meanwhile, clashes have taken place between security forces and surging crowds in Brakapora area of neighbouring Anantnag district after a convoy of the CRPF was targeted by a mob with stones on Mondat afternnoon.

The reports said that the CRPF jawans came down of their vehicles and fired teargas canisters to push the stone-pelters, triggering clashes.