Three militants killed in firefight with security forces in J&K's Tral

Srinagar: All the three militants trapped in a private house after the security forces launched a cordon and search operation in a remote village in Tral area of Jammu and Kashmir’s southern Pulwama district on Tuesday have been killed in an ensuing gunfight.

Claiming this, the police and Army officials said that the fighting between holed up militants and the security forces broke out after the later laid siege to Nazneen Pora village of Tral on receiving inputs about the presence of militants.

This was the third cordon and search operation launched by the security forces in the Valley after the Centre announced on Sunday not to extend the conditional ceasefire beyond Muslim fasting month of Ramzan and instead resume counterinsurgency operations in the State. No casualties were reported during two other operations carried out on Monday. However, two more gunmen believed to be part of a large group of infiltrators were killed in a firefight raging in the woods of northern Bandipore district for the past twelve days, raising the toll to five including four militants and one Army jawan.

The officials said that it was a joint operation of the Army, the J&K police’s counterinsurgency Special Operation Group (SOG) and the CRPF launched at Nazneen Pora earlier during the day on Tuesday. They added that four Army jawans and a CRPF officer were injured in the clash.

A report from Tral said that the security forces in their final assault against the holed up militants blew up the house using explosives. Later the corpses of three men were retrieved from under the debris. The officials said that their identities are being ascertained. Massive protests by locals broke out in the area during the encounter.

In a statement issued late Tuesday night, the police said that the slain militants have been identified as Adil, Danish and Qasim. “The third militant identified as Qasim is believed to be a Pakistani. They were affiliated with proscribed organization Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM),” the statement said. It added, “It is learnt that they were the top commanders of JeM involved in a series of terror attacks on the civilians and the security establishments in recent times”.