JOIN USMilitants attack army after massive search operations
A civilian was killed and three soldiers injured when militants attacked an army patrol in south Kashmir’s Shopian district on Thursday evening. Another encounter between the ultras and forces was going on in the neighbouring Kulgam district.
Reports said militants opened fire on a patrol party of the army’s 62 Rashtriya Rifles in the Imam Sahib area of Shopian, 55 km from here, around 6.30 pm, when the troops were withdrawing from a search operation.
The driver of a Tata Sumo in which the armymen were travelling was killed in the attack, while three troopers were injured.
Militants managed to escape from the spot taking advantage of the darkness, sources said. The attack came hours after security forces launched a massive cordon and search operation to flush out militants in Shopian. However, the operation was called off in the evening.
Meanwhile, an encounter between militants and security forces started in Khudwani area of Kulgam district late in the evening. The sources said the security forces launched a search operation in Khudwani after specific information about the presence of three to four militants in the area. As forces zeroed in on the area where the militants were hiding, they fired on the search party, triggering a gun battle.
“The cordon has been strengthened to prevent the militants from escaping. So far, there have been no casualties,” a police officer said, adding one of the most wanted militants — Junaid Matu of Hizbul Mujahideen — is believed to be trapped in the cordon.
Reports said hundreds of villagers, including women, were trying to march towards the encounter site to help the hiding militants escape. The protesters also threw stones at the security forces.
Search operation
A massive cordon and search operation was launched by security forces in south Kashmir’s Shopian district on Thursday morning.
The operation, earlier described by Deputy Inspector General of Police (south Kashmir) S P Pani as “unprecedented”, had started early in the day to nab the militants who carried out attacks on political workers, security personnel, snatched weapons and looted several banks in recent weeks.
Assisted by drones and helicopters, security forces carried out house-to-house searches in nearly 20 villages of Shopian and neighbouring Pulwama and Kulgam districts.
“We had inputs about the presence of militants in the area. Clashes erupted at two places in Sugan and Turkwanagam,” DIG Pani said, refusing to comment on the facilities used in the operation.
Sources said the operation began after inputs that the recent video in which around 30 militants were seen together might have been filmed in the area. “Operation on such a massive scale was launched in the Valley after more than a decade,” they said.
However, a senior army official, while terming the operation a routine anti-militancy and area domination exercise, said, “Such operations will continue as we have inputs about the presence of dozens of militants in the area.”
A local resident told DH over phone that security forces ‘indiscriminately’ thrashed people, besides damaging vehicles, doors and windowpanes during the search operation.