Three militants killed in Sopore encounter

Three ultras of the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) outfit were on Monday killed in a fierce gun battle between security forces and militants in the volatile Sopore town of north Kashmir’s Baramulla district, injuring two army troopers.

Sources told Deccan Herald that Jammu and Kashmir Police’s Special Operations Group (SOG), along with troops from the Army’s 22 Rashtriya Rifles, cordoned off Dooru village in Sopore after receiving specific information about the presence of a group of militants in the area. 

“As the security forces were laying a cordon around the area, hiding militants opened indiscriminate fire on the search party from the house of one Ghulam Hasan Pala,” they said. 

“In retaliatory action by the troops, three foreign militants were killed while two others managed to break the cordon and flee the area,” they added.

Inspector General of Police Kashmir Abdul Gani Mir said that at around 11 am, police received information about the presence of militants in Dooru village, which is the native place of hardline Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Geelani.

Addressing reporters in Sopore after the gun fight ended, Mir said, “Three militants were killed while two soldiers received minor injuries in the encounter. They were a group of five militants hiding in the house, but two fled the spot during the gun battle.”

Police identified the slain militants as Hassan, Rizwan and Farooq from the JeM outfit.
 “Hassan was heading JeM in North Kashmir (divisional commander) and had replaced Qari Yasir, who got killed in Lolab last year,” the IGP said.

He added that the killed militants were operating in the Lolab area in the frontier district of Kupwara for the past year.

The encounter, Mir confirmed, was a continuation of one that took place at Marbel forests two days ago, where militants had given forces the slip.