J&K: LeT militants tried to flee after encounter with forces in Bandipora

Srinagar: Six Lashkar-e-Tayyaba militants and a Garud commando of the Indian Air Force were killed and an Army soldier injured in a gun battle in Hajin area of Jammu and Kashmir’s northern Bandipore district on Saturday. They had together launched a cordon-and-search-operation after “specific inputs” about presence of militants earlier during the day on Saturday.

The fighting broke out soon after the security forces laid siege to the area, 36-km north of Srinagar, on learning about the presence of militants there, a police spokesman said.

It is the same area where two IAF commandos Sergeant K. Milind Kishor, 33, and Corporal Nilesh Kumar Nayan, 31, and two militants were killed. Like them, the Garud commando Nirala who laid down his life during the fighting was part of the counter-insurgency operation.

The police said the LeT militants had tried to flee from the cordon while firing but the security forces foiled it and killed all the six of them.