Srinagar: Three militants were killed on Thursday in an encounter with security forces after they attacked an Army camp in north Kashmir's Kupwara district, the army said here.
The militants opened fire on an Army camp at Langate in Kupwara district at around 5 am, which was retaliated by the alert jawans, an Army official said.
After repulsing the attack, the security forces launched a search operation in the area, during which the militants fired upon them, leading to an encounter.
Army and police sources said that the militants targeted the battalion headquarters of Army’s counterinsurgency 30 Rashtriya Rifles at Langaet, 80-km northwest of Srinagar, with rifle fire and grenades. The troops quickly retaliated by opening fire forcing the militants to flee the spot.
Later, during the search operations, the militants were cornered by the armed forced in a nearby apple orchard and were gunned down after a 20-minute standoff, the sources said.
Superintendent of Police (Handwara), Ghulam Jeelani, confirmed the killing of three militants and said that three AK 47 rifles have been recovered. “The identity of the slain terrorists is being ascertained. Searches in the area are on,” he said.
The officials believe that these militants could have be a part of fresh group of infiltrators, who may have sneaked into J&K from across the LoC) overnight.
Apart from 3 AK assault rifles, ammunition, 4 radio sets, 3 Global Positioning System (GPS) device, medicines and other ‘war like stores’ were also recovered from the slain militants.
