Six militants killed in two encounters in north and south Kashmir
A security man takes aim at the encounter site at Arwani area of Bijbehara on Thursday. Four militants got killed during the encounter. PHOTO/Muneeb Ul Islam
Baramulla/Anantnag, Oct 25: Six militants were killed in two different encounters at Authoora village near Kreeri in Baramulla district and Arwani area of Bijbehara in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district.
Two militants were killed in an encounter with police and other security forces in Kreeri area of north Kashmir’s Baramulla district on Thursday.
Official sources said that troops of Army’s 29 RR, SOG of police and paramilitary CRPF cordoned off the Authoora village of Kreeri Baramulla in the wee hours Thursday after a specific information about the presence of militants there.
They said as the forces were conducting house to house searches in the Sideeq Colony Authoora, the militants who had taken shelter into the house of a local resident Ghulam Nabi Chopan opened fire on the search party, triggering an encounter which continued for hours.
Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Baramulla Imtiyaz Hussain said that two militants have been killed. He said the operation is continuing and the identity of the slain militants is yet to be ascertained.
The sources said these militants had given slip to forces in Hanjivera Pattan on Wednesday evening and reached Kreeri. “But forces tracked their movement and trapped them in a three-storey residential house in Authoora,” a police official said.
The locals said that as the gunfight started, people of the area, mostly youths, took to the streets and tried to break the cordon. They clashed with the forces who fired tear-smoke shells to disperse the stone-pelting youth, not allowing them to reach the gunfight site.
Traffic was also disrupted on Srinagar-Baramulla road as police had erected barricades at several places along the highway due to which the students appearing for their annual exams faced difficulties.
Internet services were also suspended in the Baramulla district following the gunfight.
Meanwhile, four militants were killed in an ongoing encounter in Arwani area of Bijbehara in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district, police said on Thursday evening.
A police official said so far four militants have been killed and searches are underway at the gunfight site.
He identified one of the slain militants as Sahil Makroo of Arwani.
He said the identity of other three slain militants is yet to be ascertained.
“Three weapons have been recovered from the gunfight site,” he said.
Earlier today, a gunfight broke out between militants and the security forces after forces launched a cordon-and-search-operation in Arwani.
Clashes also erupted near the site of gunfight. Scores of youth took to streets and clashed with the forces as the news of gunfight spread in the area.
