Srinagar: A fierce gun battle undertook between a group of two to three militants holed up in a house and security forces in Hayena village of Tral area in southern Pulwama district on late Saturday evening.
The forces reportedly blasted the house after imposing a curfew in the area. The locals said over the phone that earlier, mike-fitted police jeeps went around announcing, a curfew had been imposed in and around Hafoo Nazneenpora village and that no one should try to venture out.
“After some time we heard huge blasts,” said one of them. Heavy firing was also on.” In a related incident, irate crowds attacked the CRPF reinforcements, which were on way to the village in Tral. Sources said the mob had gathered in the heart of the town and attacked the security personnel with sticks and stones. They also snatched the service rifle from a CRPF jawan, the sources said.
Meanwhile, the security forces called off the operation launched on Friday evening in a remote village of Kashmir Valley’s southern Shopian district on Saturday as the militants who had been holed up in a private house escaped overnight.
The security forces resumed the operation with the first light on Saturday after it was suspended for the night to avoid collateral damage but did not find militants inside the house when they entered it around 9am.
A police official said that there was no response to the security forces’ firing towards the house on Saturday morning, and after some time when the Army’s Paratroopers entered the premises, they found it empty. The family living left soon after the encounter started on Friday evening. After the search, the operation was called off.
