Four unidentified militants killed in Kashmir’s Kulgam

Four unidentified militants were killed in an encounter with security forces in south Kashmir’s Kulgam district on Sunday evening.

Sources said the gun battle erupted after the Army's 9-Rashtriya Rifles and J&K police launched a cordon-and-search-operation (CASO) in Guddar area of Kulgam, 70 kms from here, on Sunday evening

Inspector General Police (IGP) Kashmir, Vijay Kumar, said four militants were killed in the gunfight, while one Army officer also got injured.

The identity of the slain militants is yet to be ascertained. This is the third encounter since April 24 in south Kashmir.

On Saturday two unidentified militants and their ‘associate’ were killed in an encounter with the security forces in Awantipora area of Pulwama district. A day before that, two more militants were killed and a cop was injured in a brief shootout in Anantnag district.

Nearly 60 militants, including several top commanders of Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) and Lashker-e-Toiba (LeT) have been killed in counter-insurgency operations by security forces in Jammu and Kashmir this year so far.

April witnessed the highest number of militant casualties with 27 ultras killed so-far. In January, 17 militants were killed while eight were neutralised in February and seven in March.

A police officer said on an average a militant was killed every day in Valley this month. “Besides, a large number of militant sympathisers have been apprehended,” he said.

Earlier in the day, field intelligence units of the Army coupled with inputs comprising HUMINT (human intelligence) and TECHINT (technical intelligence) indicated that around 300 militants are reported to be waiting across the Line of Control (LoC) in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) to sneak into Kashmir Valley.