<div align="justify">Two militants were killed and two soldiers injured in a 14-hour long encounter that erupted on Saturday evening with an attack on a CRPF patrol on the outskirts of Srinagar.<br /><br />On Saturday a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) officer was killed and two other troopers injured when the militants ambushed a paramilitary vehicle at Pantha Chowk, on Srinagar-Jammu national highway. After carrying the deadly attack, the militants ran into the nearby Delhi Public School (DPS) complex, which by then had closed for the day.<br /><br />Sources said a joint party of army, police and CRPF immediately surrounded the complex to prevent the militants from escaping and the exchange of fire between holed up ultras and forces started at around 3.40 am. <br /><br />"Drone cameras were used to trace the exact location of the militants and after 14-hours of intense firing from both the sides, both the holed up ultras were neutralized," they said and added two soldiers, including an officer were also injured in the incident.<br /><br />Sources said army also resorted to heavy mortar shelling to target militants who had taken cover inside a huge concrete building of the DPS, Pantha Chowk, which is barely a km away from Army's 15-Corps headquarters. "The school, whose students are mostly from the Kashmiri elite families, suffered partial damages due to the shelling," they said.<br /><br />State police chief Shesh Pal Vaid confirmed the killing of two militants in the encounter. On the operation getting prolonged, he told reporters, "There are 36 rooms, the building is huge. So, it had to be searched floor by floor, room by room."<br /><br />Vaid said the the enemy has a nefarious design that the school buildings are destroyed and children have nothing to study and ultimately abandon their studies. "We will ensure that no such thing happens," he vowed. <br /><br />Fearing protests by the locals near the site of the encounter, the district administration in Srinagar imposed restrictions under section 144 CrPc from Ram Munshibagh to Sempora with immediate effect, last evening. To prevent civilian casualties, authorities had also restricted traffic movement on the highway.<br /><br />The mobile internet services have also been affected across the valley as the network speeds have been reduced.<br /><br />Earlier, the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) militant outfit had claimed responsibility for the attack on the CRPF vehicle in which sub inspector Sahab Shukla was killed and two other CRPF personnel injured.</div>
<div align="justify">Two militants were killed and two soldiers injured in a 14-hour long encounter that erupted on Saturday evening with an attack on a CRPF patrol on the outskirts of Srinagar.<br /><br />On Saturday a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) officer was killed and two other troopers injured when the militants ambushed a paramilitary vehicle at Pantha Chowk, on Srinagar-Jammu national highway. After carrying the deadly attack, the militants ran into the nearby Delhi Public School (DPS) complex, which by then had closed for the day.<br /><br />Sources said a joint party of army, police and CRPF immediately surrounded the complex to prevent the militants from escaping and the exchange of fire between holed up ultras and forces started at around 3.40 am. <br /><br />"Drone cameras were used to trace the exact location of the militants and after 14-hours of intense firing from both the sides, both the holed up ultras were neutralized," they said and added two soldiers, including an officer were also injured in the incident.<br /><br />Sources said army also resorted to heavy mortar shelling to target militants who had taken cover inside a huge concrete building of the DPS, Pantha Chowk, which is barely a km away from Army's 15-Corps headquarters. "The school, whose students are mostly from the Kashmiri elite families, suffered partial damages due to the shelling," they said.<br /><br />State police chief Shesh Pal Vaid confirmed the killing of two militants in the encounter. On the operation getting prolonged, he told reporters, "There are 36 rooms, the building is huge. So, it had to be searched floor by floor, room by room."<br /><br />Vaid said the the enemy has a nefarious design that the school buildings are destroyed and children have nothing to study and ultimately abandon their studies. "We will ensure that no such thing happens," he vowed. <br /><br />Fearing protests by the locals near the site of the encounter, the district administration in Srinagar imposed restrictions under section 144 CrPc from Ram Munshibagh to Sempora with immediate effect, last evening. To prevent civilian casualties, authorities had also restricted traffic movement on the highway.<br /><br />The mobile internet services have also been affected across the valley as the network speeds have been reduced.<br /><br />Earlier, the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) militant outfit had claimed responsibility for the attack on the CRPF vehicle in which sub inspector Sahab Shukla was killed and two other CRPF personnel injured.</div>
