CRPF man killed as militants escape cordon in Kashmir

A CRPF trooper was killed while militants managed to escape following a fierce gunfight at Bargam village of south Kashmir's Pulwama district on Saturday.

Sources said the encounter began after a joint party of the army’s 55-Rashtriya Rifles, special operations group (SOG) of the state police and the CRPF launched a cordon and search operation (CASO) at Chinar Bagh during the intervening night of Friday and Saturday.

They said in the initial exchange of firing, a CRPF trooper, identified as Mandeep Kumar of 182 Battalion, sustained critical injuries. He was evacuated to 92 base hospital in Srinagar but died on the way.

“The militants, believed to be two to three in number, managed to escape while taking advantage of darkness and stone pelting in the area. The militants fled at around 3 am,” sources said.

Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Pulwama, Aslam Choudary, confirmed the killing of the CRPF trooper and that the militants escaped after the gunfight.

“There was the possibility of collateral damage...we had to call off the operation. The militants took advantage of the darkness and fled,” he told DH.

The latest encounter took place less than a week after the security forces gunned down five Hizb-ul-Mujahideen militants, including commander Saddam Padder and Kashmir University’s assistant professor Rafi Bhat, at Badigam village in neighbouring Shopian district.