Two LeT militants killed in Handwara encounter

Two Laskhar-e-Toiba militants were killed in a brief encounter with security forces in Handwara area of north Kashmir's Kupwara district on Sunday.

A police official said that a joint party of Army’s 21 Rashtriya Rifles and Special Operations Group (SOG) of J&K police launched a search operation after inputs about presence of militants in Waripora village of Handwara, 75 km from here.

"Two foreign militants, who were corned in an orchard just a hundred metres away from the populated area in Waripora, opened fire on the search party. In the retaliatory action, both were killed in a brief encounter at around 4.15 pm," he said.

Superintendent of Police, Handwara Ghulam Jeelani confirmed the killing of two militants in the encounter. "Both the slain militants are foreigners and we are trying to ascertain their identity. Since Lashkar-e-Toiba is active in the region, we suspect the militants are from the same outfit," he said.

Earlier on April 27, three soldiers, including an officer, and two unidentified fidayeen militants were killed, when militants launched a pre-dawn attack on a military installation near the Line of Control in Kupwara district.

Militancy in the insurgency-hit Valley has been on the rise in recent months and the number of local militants has increased, especially after the killing of Hizb-ul-Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in July last year.

According to J&K police estimates there are more than 200 active militants in the Valley mostly of Hizb-ul-Mujahideen and LeT. Around 90 among them are foreigners while the rest are locals, mostly youth in the age group of 18 to 28 years. Most of the local militants are in southern districts of the Valley while foreigners dominate northern areas.

Meanwhile, a civilian who was wounded during a militant attack on a police party on May 6 in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district succumbed to his injuries. The death toll in that incident has now risen to six.