Srinagar: Four scribes are among a large number of people who were injured when security forces fired live ammunition to quell irate crowds as some parts of Jammu and Kashmir’s southern Shopian and Pulwama districts erupted on Tuesday following the killing of six separatist militants in two separate gunfights with the troops. An Army soldier was injured in one of these encounters.
Among the slain militants is a brother of a 2012 batch IPS officer who is posted in the North East, the police sources said.
The sources said that the fighting broke out in Heff Shirmal village of Shopian district soon after the security forces including the Army’s 44 Rashtriya Rifles and 23 PARA, J&K police’s counterinsurgency Special Operations Group (SOG) and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) laid a cordon and search operation in the village to flush out militants.
A police official said that the operation was launched following “credible inputs” about the pre-sence of militants in the area.
The militants hiding in an orchard opened fire at the security forces triggering the encounter, the official said.
He added that there was a momentarily lull in firing before a fierce gunfight broke out between the two sides.
The security forces used explosives and mortars to blow up the hideout of the militants, a report received said.
The sources said that security forces have recovered the corpses of three militants whereas their fourth accomplice is reported to have escaped the dragnet.
One of the slain militants has been identified as Shams-ul- Haq Men-gnoo, a resident of Shopi-an’s Draggud village.
A student of a Unani Medicine and Surgery (BUMS) college at Srinagar, he was younger brother of a 2012 batch IPS officer Inamul Haq who is posted in the North East, the sources said adding that the identity of the two other militants is being ascertained.
The authorities have snapped mobile Internet service in the area “as a precautionary measure”.
The gunfight at Heff Shirmal came a day after a similar clash in Zinpanthal Hapatnad woods in central district of Budgam in which an equal number of militants were killed.
