Srinagar: Three militants were gunned down by the security forces in an 18-hour-long firefight in Mujagund area on the peripheries of Jammu and Kashmir’s summer capital Srinagar on Sunday.
Among the slain is a 14-year-old student Mudassir Rashid Parray who had joined the militant ranks only a week ago, locals said. Two other slain militants were identified as Saqib Bilal Sheikh and Ali. All the three belonged to the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba.
The police also said that while Mudassir and Saqib were residents of Hajin area of Jammu and Kashmir’s Bandipore district, their third accomplice Ali is believed to be a Pakistani national.
Five security personnel were injured in the fighting which broke out during a cordon-and-search operation launched by the security forces including the Army’s 5 Rashtriya Rifles, J&K police’s counterinsurgency Special Operations Group (SOG) and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) on Saturday evening following a “credible input” about the presence of militants in the area, the police said.
The security forces fired mortars and also used explosives to blow up five residential houses as the militants kept changing their positions throughout the fighting, the police sources said.
Two critically injured security personnel were evacuated to the Army’s 92-Base Hospital at Badami Bagh Cantonment here, the sources added.
While the encounter was underway, surging crowds clashed with the security forces in the area, the witnesses said. These clashes intensified following the killing of militants.
A statement issued by the J&K police here said that the security forces were fired upon by the hiding militants during the search operation in the area.
“The fire was retaliated leading to a gunfight. In the initial exchange of fire, an Army man sustained injuries and was shifted to a hospital for medical treatment. In the ensuing encounter, three militants were killed and their bodies were retrieved from the site of encounter,” the statement said.
The police sources said that later three SOG men and a CRPF jawan were also injured while fighting the militants.
A report from Hajin said that hundreds of residents took to the streets chanting pro-freedom slogans as the word about the killing of Parray spread.
Soon groups of youth clashed with the police and central armed forces along the streets of the town, the report said.
