Srinagar: Four Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) militants and an Army paratrooper were killed and three other soldiers injured in a fierce gunfight in J&K’s southern Shopian district on Tuesday.
The officials said that a joint team of the Army’s 23 PARA and 34 PARA, the J&K police’s counter-insurgency Special Opera-tions Group and CRPF launched a cordon-and-search operation at Nadigam, 60 km south of summer capital Srinagar, early on Tuesday following “credible input” about the presence of militants in the village.
“As the predawn search operation was underway, the search party was confronted with bullets fired by hiding terrorists. The fire was retaliated, leading to an encounter,” a statement issued by the police here said.
It added that in the initial militant fire, 4 army jawans got injured. One of the jawans, who was critically injured, was evacuated to Srinagar, where he was admitted to the Army’s 92-Base Hospital. However, he soon succumbed to injuries. The condition of three other soldiers Sepoy Shailender Singh, Lance Naik Somveer and Havaldar Bhupinder Singh injured in the clash is stated to be ‘out of danger’.
The Army said that the slain soldier Lance Havaldar Vijay Kumar, 37, was a resident of village Sagwan of Tosham Tehsil, in Bhiwani district of Haryana, and is survived by his wife and three children. “The mortal remains of the martyr were flown for last rites to his native place, where he would be laid to rest with full military honours. In this hour of grief, the Army stands in solidarity with the bereaved family of the martyr and remains committed to their dignity and well being,” a statement issued by the Army here said.
In the encounter, four militants who were identified as Aabid Nazir Chopan, Basharat Nengroo, Merajuddin Najar, and Malikzada Inam-ul-Haq — all local Kashmiris — were killed. The police said that the slain HM cadres were involved in attacks on security forces and their establishments, civilian atrocities, and other subversive activities in south Kashmir areas.
The killing of militants sparked off protests in the area, which soon turned violent. Ten persons were injured, three of them critically, when the security forces fired live ammunition to quell protesters and stone-throwing mobs at Nadigam and its neighbourhood, the witnesses and hospital sources said. Later during the day, the protests and clashes spread to neighbouring Pulwama district, reports said.
Three of the civilians including two girls received bullet injuries during the clashes, the hospital sources said.
