Army jawan killed in Kashmir gunfight

An Army jawan was killed and three others injured in an encounter with militants in central Kashmir’s Budgam district on Monday.

Reports said the gunbattle started after the Army’s 53-Rashtriya Rifles (RR) and Special Operations Group (SOG) of Jammu and Kashmir police laid a cordon around a residential house where three militants are believed to be holed up in Kausarmullah Chadoora, 25 kms from here.

Fierce firing

As security forces zeroed in on the house, the militants fired at them triggering a fierce gunfight in which four troopers were injured, reports said. An Army spokesman said that one of the injured solider succumbed to his injuries while the three others were shifted to Army’s 92-Base hospital.

Sources told Deccan Herald that the militants, reportedly two to three in number, broke the cordon and managed to escape the gunfight. They said Lashkar-e-Toiba south Kashmir commander Qasim was among the militants who escaped from the encounter site.