Police officer, militant killed in separate incidents in Kashmir

A police officer and an unidentified militant were killed in two separate militancy-related incidents in south Kashmir’s Anantnag and Shopian districts respectively on Monday.

Sources said that militants fired upon inspector Mohammad Ashraf in the Kenalwan area of Anantnag district while he was returning home after offering prayers.

He was rushed to a hospital in critical condition, where doctors declared him dead on arrival, they said and added that the area was immediately cordoned off to nab the attackers.

In a separate incident, an unidentified militant was killed in an ongoing encounter with security forces in the Melhura area of Shopian. The encounter erupted after a joint team of J&K police and Army’s 55-Rashtriya Rifles launched a cordon-and-search-operation in Melhura following ‘specific’ information about the presence of militants in the area, sources said.

As the joint team of forces approached towards the suspected spot, the hiding militants fired upon the forces triggering a gunfight in which one unidentified militant has been killed so far, they said.

Pertinently, over 190 militants have been killed so far this year in Jammu and Kashmir.