At least 14 people, including eight policemen, were killed since Thursday evening in ambushes, clashes and encounters across the Kashmir Valley.

Three militants and three civilians are also among the deceased. Six policemen, including a station house officer (SHO), were killed after a group of heavily armed militants ambushed their  vehicle in Achabal area of south Kashmir’s Anantnag district on Friday evening, reports said.

Sources said the militants fatally disfigured the policemen and escaped with their weapons. “All of a sudden eight to 10 militants, who had laid an ambush, opened indiscriminate fire on a passenger cab the policemen were travelling in.”

“The attack was so intense that the policemen didn’t get time to retaliate,” a source said, adding two civilians were wounded when reinforcement reached the spot and opened fire.

The slain SHO has been identified as sub-inspector Firoz Dar, a resident of Pulwama.  The Lashkar-e-Toiba militant outfit has claimed responsibility for the attack.

According to the police, the attack could be in retaliation to an ongoing encounter in Arwani area of Anantnag where LeT commander Junaid Mattoo was trapped in a building along with two of his associates. All the three militants are believed to be dead.

Rs 10L bounty

Mattoo, who carried a bounty of Rs 10 lakh on his head, was involved in a daylight attack on a police van last year, in which three policemen were killed.

While the police and the army didn’t confirm the death of Mattoo and his associates till evening, LeT spokesman Abdullah Gaznavi, in an emailed statement to local news-gathering agency
KNS, paid tributes to the three militants, saying “sacrifices won’t go in vain and the pure blood of martyrs shall prove to be the death for India”.

However, reports said no body has been recovered from the encounter site, and intermittent firing was on till late evening,  indicating some militants were alive.