Srinagar: Two Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT) militants were killed in a gunfight with the security forces in Jammu and Kashmir’s southern Shopian district on Sunday.
The police said that the fighting broke out in Shopian’s Hend Satipora village soon after the security forces launched a cordon-and-search operation at dawn on learning about the presence of militants there.
A police spokesman said, “The encounter broke out in the village during wee hours after a joint team of the Army’s 34 Rashtriya Rifles, J&K police’s (counterinsurgency) Special Operations Group and the CRPF cordoned off the area”. He added that the cordon was laid following “credible inputs” about the presence of some militants in the area.
The slain militants have been identified as Aadil Bashir Wani and Javaid Ahmed Bhat, both residents of neighbouring Kulgam district. The police said that it has been confirmed that the duo was affiliated with the LeT.
The police also said that it was a clean operation and no collateral damage took place during the exchange of fire.
Meanwhile, two Army jawans were injured in a blast of Under Barrel Grenade Launcher (UBGL) in Machael sector of the Line of Control (LoC) in J&K’s north-western Kupwara district on Saturday evening.
The police and Army sources here identified the injured soldiers as Havildar Jaipal Singh Tomar and Naik Vikram Mane of the Army’s 56 Rashtriya Rifles. The sources said that the UBGL went off when they were cleaning the weaponry at their post.
Both the injured were rushed to the 168 Military Hospital at Drugmulla (Kupwara) from where they were later shifted to Army’s 92-base Hospital in Srinagar for specialized treatment.
