Civilian injured as troops respond to reported militant firing in J&K's Shopian

Srinagar: One person was injured when the security forces opened fire reportedly after being attacked by militants in a village of Jammu and Kashmir’s southern Shopian district on Monday evening.

While the locals alleged that the troops opened fire without any provocation hitting a resident Shabir Ahmed Teli in the leg, the police said that they had come under “heavy firing” from militants in Shopian’s Manloo village village and that they only retaliation to it.

The soldiers Army’s 44 Rashtriya Rifles along with the members of the J&K police’s counterinsurgency Special Operations Group (SOG) were on way to a neighbouring the area to conduct searches for militants, the officials said. The police officials said that the militants fled after the security forces retaliated to their firing. The injured civilian who is a resident of Zawoora village of Shopian is being treated in hospital and his condition is stated to be stable.

Earlier during the day on Monday, a group of youth pelted stone on an Army convoy at Chadoora outside Srinagar on Monday following which the normal life was disrupted in the area. The Army was reportedly on way to Chrawani village of Chadoora for a cordon-and-search operation, the reports said.