JOIN USAn encounter broke out between militants and security forces in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district on Sunday evening.
Sources said the gunfight erupted after a joint team of the army’s 3 Rashtriya Rifles and a special operations group of the Jammu and Kashmir Police, on specific inputs, cordoned off Awoora village near a wildlife sanctuary in Pahalgam around 4 pm.
“The militants hiding in one of the houses near Overa Nalla resorted to indiscriminate firing on the forces, which was retaliated, triggering an encounter,” a source said.
A police official said that heavy exchange of fire was on till late evening. “We have installed lights, made other arrangements and tightened the cordon in the area to ensure that the militants do not escape,” he said.
Sources said that two to three local militants, affiliated to Hizbul Mujahideen, are believed to be holed up in the house in a sparsely populated village. They said heavy artillery is being used to neutralise the holed-up militants.
According to reports, as soon as the news about the encounter spread, locals from adjacent villages marched towards the encounter site and clashed with the security forces to help the militants escape from the cordon. “The protesters tried to break the cordon to help the militants flee. However, forces fired tear gas shells to disperse them, even as they offered stiff resistance,” a report read.