Four militants killed in J&K encounter, soldier injured

Srinagar: Four militants were killed by security forces in the forests of Rafiabad in Jammu and Kashmir’s north-western Baramulla district, the Army said on Wednesday.

The local police said that five militants were trapped in the area after the security forces launched a search operation to flush them out dead or alive.

The incident comes close on the heels of a similar clash in 2,600 metre high Gurez area along the Line of Control (LoC) in the state’s Bandipore district in which an Army major and three soldiers and also two Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT) militants were killed.

A defence spokesman here said that the fighting in Dooniwari woods of Rafiabad was underway as reports last came in. “So far, four terrorists have been killed,” he said.

The police sources said that a para commando of the Army was injured in the initial firing of the militants. The fighting started after the Army’s 32 Rashtriya Rifles and 9 PARA launched a cordon-and-search operation in Dooniwari woods following inputs about the presence of militants.

J&K’s director general of police Shesh Paul Vaid tweeted late Wednesday evening, “4 bodies of terrorists visible at encounter site, firing stopped.”

In an earlier tweet, he had said that five militants were trapped in the area after the security forces launched operation.

Meanwhile, the Army on Wednesday paid tribute to four of its men who laid down their lives while fighting infiltrating militants along Govind Nallah in Bakhtor area of LoC’s Gurez sector on Tuesday.

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