Two Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) militants were killed and a policeman was injured in a 24-hour long encounter between security forces and ultras in Pulwama district of south Kashmir on Tuesday.

Reports said the encounter which started on Monday evening in Ratnipora, Pulwama, 26 km from here, after militants fired at an Army patrol, resumed on Tuesday morning as the operation had come to a halt during the night due to darkness and stone-pelting by a large mob from a nearby village

A police officer said the village was effectively cordoned off by the security forces preventing escape of militants. “Throughout the night, intermittent firing was observed as the militants had taken shelter in a concrete house.

During the night, militants tried to break the cordon but they were trapped in a nearby paddy field, where they were killed in a fierce encounter on Tuesday afternoon,” he said.
The officer said that a policeman was also injured in the 24-hour-long gun battle.

“A search operation has been launched in the area to ensure no more militants are hiding there,” he added.

SSP Police Control Room (PCR) Imtiyaz Hussain identified the slain militants as Gulzar Ahmad Bhat and Showkat Ahmad Lone, both residents of Pulwama district.

On Monday, one of the most wanted militants involved in major terror strikes in Srinagar and south Kashmir escaped the security forces in Rakh-e-Lajoora area of Pulwama along with his two associates.

Earlier last week, LeT divisional commander Abu Qasim managed to escape from Kakapora village in the same district, but one local militant, Talib Shah was killed. Qasim is said to be mastermind of the Udhampur terror attack on BSF convoy last week in which two paramilitary troopers were killed and 11 others injured.

Meanwhile, reports said, clashes erupted in Ratnipora village after the news of death of two local militants reached there.  Witnesses said that angry youths pelted stones at police and paramilitary forces who responded with tear-smoke shelling and aerial firing. Reports said a civilian identified as Bilal Ahmad died after security forces opened fire to disperse the protesters.

Eyewitnesses told Deccan Herald over phone that the youth was hit by a bullet. He was shifted to a hospital but succumbed to his injuries.