Three militants, soldier killed in Pulwama encounter

Three militants and an army soldier were killed while a civilian was injured in an ongoing encounter between security forces and ultras in south Kashmir's Pulwama district on Monday.

Sources said troops of the Army's 44-Rashtriya Rifles battalion and Special Operations Group (SOG) of the Jammu & Kashmir Police launched a cordon-and-search operation in Kandi belt of Aglar area in Pulwama, on Monday evening, following information about the presence of some militants in the area.

"As the search party was laying cordon around the area, the hiding militants fired on them, in which one soldier was killed," sources said.

Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Pulwama, Aslam Choudhary, confirmed the killing of a soldier in the encounter. He identified the victim as Sham Sundar, who had sustained bullet injuries during initial exchange of fire with militants and was referred to Army hospital in Srinagar, where he succumbed to his injuries.

Defence spokesman, Col Rajesh Kalia, said that three militants hiding in the area have been killed. "Two AK-47 rifles and a pistol were recovered from the encounter site," he said. The identity of the militants were not immediately known.

Reports said soon after the news about the encounter spread in the area, the locals mostly youth took to streets and pelted stones on the security forces. The police and paramilitary forces resorted to tear smoke shells and firing to disperse them, in which a civilian sustained bullet wound. He was hospitalised.

On November 2, two army troopers and a militant were killed in an encounter in Pampore area of the same district.