SRINAGAR: Three suspected Jaish-e-Muhammad cadres attempting to enter the Kashmir Valley after reportedly sneaking into Jammu and Kashmir from across the border at Hiranagar, 56-km east of winter capital Jammu, were shot dead by security forces in an encounter at Nagrota along the Jammu-Srinagar highway on Friday, the police said. One policeman was injured in the shooting.
J&K’s director general of police, Dilbag Singh, said in Jammu that three to four militants were going to Srinagar in a truck which was intercepted by the police at Ban toll plaza at Nagrota, about 14-km up Jammu.
“The terrorists were believed to be part of a freshly infiltrated group which may have sneaked into Jammu and Kashmir along the International Border (IB) somewhere near Hiranagar in Kathua district. They were on their way to Kashmir Valley,” he said.
The police said that after the truck was signalled to stop at the toll plaza for routine checking the men on board opened fire triggering an encounter between them and the security personnel. “Three terrorists were killed and one of our jawan was injured,” the police chief said.
The injured policeman Bhom Raj was quickly evacuated to the government-run Medical College Hospital at Jammu. Doctors said that he has received a bullet injury in his right arm and is stable.
The police said four weapons including M4 carbine, a shorter and lighter variant of the M16A2 assault rifle extensively used by the US armed forces, and some ammunition and explosives besides wireless sets were found on the slain militants and inside the truck. The police also arrested the driver of the truck Sameer Ahmed Dar, a resident of Kashmir Valley’s Pulwama district.
In the evening, the police raided Sameer Dar's home and some other places in Pulwama. At least, one more person was detained during the operation, the police sources said. One report mentioned the truck driver's name as Muhammad Maqbool.
The police sources said that after the truck was intercepted for regular checking at the toll plaza, an alert policeman spotted a cavity made in the loaded truck to hide militants. When the policemen opened the cavity, the militants opened fire injuring Raj, the sources said.
