3 Hizb militants killed in Kashmir gunfight

Army and J&K police Special Operations Group personnel move towards the site of an encounter in which one militant was killed and an Army officer was among two soldiers injured in Manigah area of Kupwara district, north Kashmir, on Monday. (Photo: PTI)

Three members of Kashmir’s indigenous militant outfit Hizb-ul-Mujahideen were killed in a gunfight with security forces in Aishmuqam area of southern Anantnag district on Monday. Another militant was killed in a similar clash in woods of frontier Kupwara district.

Police authorities said the fighting broke out after militants targeted a joint search part of the Army’s 3 Rashtriya Rifles, the local police’s counterinsurgency special operations group and CRPF in Silgam village outside Aishmuqam township in the morning. The security forces had earlier laid siege to the area after learning about the presence of militants in a private house there.

The authorities identified the slain militants as Sartaj Ahmed Lone, Adil Ahmed Sheikh and Tanveer Ahmedd Bhutt and said they were residents of neighbouring Bijbehara area. “The fighting has stopped but the search operation is still underway,” a senior police officer said. Three AK-47 riffles with six magazines, one under barrel grenade launcher with three grenades and one pistol were found on the slain militants, the police and the Army said.

The Army also said that a “swift and surgical operation” was launched on a tip off.