Srinagar: Four militants and an Army jawan were killed and three other soldiers were injured in a 17-hour-long fierce gun battle in woods of Handwara in J&K’s frontier district of Kupwara, officials said on Thursday.
The slain soldier has been identified as nine PARA’s Lance Naik Mohan Nath Goswami. The injured jawans have been airlifted to Srinagar and admitted in an Army hospital.
The encounter started after security forces including Army’s six Rashtriya Rifles and nine PARA, J&K police’s counterinsurgency Special Operations Group and CRPF’s 98 Battalion launched a joint operation to flush out militants hiding in Haphruda woods outside Sochelyari village.
Defence spokesman Lt. Col N.N. Joshi said the operation was launched following information about the presence of three to four militants in the woods. “Contact with terrorists was established at night and a fierce gun battle ensued which continued intermittently through the night resulting in elimination of four terrorists whose identity is being ascertained,” he said.
