Srinagar, Dec 31: Three Jaish e Muhammad (JeM) militants were killed and four cops were injured in a brief gunfight at Pantha Chowk on the outskirts of Srinagar, police said on Friday.
The joint team of police and the paramilitary CRPF came under heavy fire while they cordoned off a house in which militants were hiding, leaving three policemen and a CRPF trooper wounded, officials told Kashmir Review. The operation was launched late evening on Thursday.
One of the slain militants has been identified as Suhail Rather of Zewan.
Inspector-General of Police Kashmir, Mr Vijay Kumar on Friday said Rather was involved in Zewan militant bus attack.
The JeM has lost its 9 men in 24 hours in three different brief gunfights in Kashmir.
The late-night encounter started between suspected militants and security forces at Pantha Chowk in the outskirts of Srinagar, which is closer to Zewan locality where a police party was attacked last week. Pantha Chowk is near the Indian Army’s Srinagar based strategic 15 Corps headquarters.
Officials said a joint team of Police and paramilitary CRPF launched a cordon and search operation suspecting the presence of militants in the Pantha Chowk area.
“In the initial exchange of fire, 03 Police personnel & 01 CRPF personnel got injured & were subsequently shifted to hospital. Operation going on. Further details shall follow,” tweeted Kashmir Police.
The gunfight took place a few hours after six Jaish-e-Muhammad militants including two foreigners and an Indian Army’s soldier were killed in two separate encounters in southern districts of Anantnag and Kulgam on Wednesday. Two soldiers and a policeman were also injured in one of the encounters.
For the first time in the ongoing insurgency, the number of active militants in Kashmir has come down to less than 200, said Inspector General of Police (IGP) Kashmir Vijay Kumar Thursday
Kumar said the number of local militants active is 86.
He said that in the past five days 11 militants were killed including two foreign militants.
The IGP Kashmir, however, said that the rise in encounters doesn’t mean that militancy has increased as it was totally otherwise. “For the first time in the past 30 years of militancy in Kashmir, the number of active militants has come down to less than 200. It is also for the first time that the number of local active militants is 86 only,” IGP Kumar said.
