5 militants killed in J&K; 8 protesters hurt in clashes near encounter site
Srinagar: Five Islamic militants were gunned down by security forces in two separate encounters in Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday.
Four militants were killed in a firefight raging in Futlipora village of Pakharpora area of central district of Budgam in the Valley since Thursday morning, the Army and J&K police officials said here.
A fifth militant was shot dead by the security forces in Sagipora woods outside north-western town of Sopore in Baramulla district.
Defence spokesman, Colonel Rajesh Kalia, said that a soldier of the Army's 9 Para was injured in the second clash.
The Army and police sources said that the security forces including J&K police’s counterinsurgency Special Operations Group (SOG), the Army’s 10 Garhwal regiment and the CRPF laid siege to Futlipora at dawn on Thursday after receiving specific inputs about the presence of militants in the village.
While the security forces were encircling a private house where militants were hiding, the latter opened fire at them, triggering encounter, the sources said.
Soon surging crowds of the locals, mainly youth, while chanting pro-freedom began marching towards the encounter site but they were intercepted by the security forces at the main square of Pakherpora township.
The angry youth who apparently wanted to disrupt the cordon-and-search operation with the intention to help the holed up militants hurled stones at the security personnel, said a police official.
He added that the protesters torched a private pickup van which was being used by the security forces. The police and other security forces fired rifles and pellet shotguns and also burst teargas canisters quell the violent protesters, the witnesses said.
Eight protesters were injured in the use of live ammunition by the security forces, said an official at the government-run health centre at Pakharpora where the injured were admitted. Five of them have been hit by pellets and the rest have received bullet wounds, he added. One of the seriously injured, a 15-year-old boy, was shifted to a Srinagar hospital, a report said.
The internet services in the Budgam and neighbouring Pulwama district have been suspended “to prevent anti-social and anti-peace elements from using social media platforms” in the backdrop of the encounter at Futlipora and subsequent clashes in the area, the official sources here said.
In a separate clash reported from Zaloora top in Sagipora woods outside Sopore town, one militant has been killed and an Army para commando injured. The defence spokesman here said that the SOG, Army’s 22 Rashtriya Rifles and 9 Para and the CRPF’s 92 Battalion launched a cordon-and- search operation in the area after inputs about the presence of militants.
After encircling them, the security forces asked the militants to surrender but they responded by opening fire, the spokesman said adding that the encounter was underway as reports last came in.
Deputy Inspector General of Police (Baramulla) BK Virdi confirmed the killing of one militant and injuries to a soldier from 9 Para during the fire fight and said that the contact between the militants and the security forces was established soon after the cordon-and-search operation was launched in the area.
