5 Security Personnel, 7 Militants Killed in Encounters Across J&K

3 LeT terrorists were killed in an encounter at South Kashmir's Shopian district on Monday evening.

At least seven militants and five army personnel, including a top officer have died in five encounters which occurred in Jammu and Kashmir in a span of 30 hours.

According to officials, Kashmir police had gunned down three terrorists, including a terrorist responsible for the killing of a street hawker at Tulran Imamsahab area of South Kashmir's Shopian district on the evening of Monday, 11 October.

On Tuesday, IGP Kashmir Vijay Kumar, as per IANS, stated: "Out of three, one terrorist has been identified as Mukhtar Shah of Ganderbal, who shifted to Shopian after killing one street hawker Virendra Paswan of Bihar."

The other terrorists have been identified as Danish Hussain Dar of Kapren Shopian and Yawar Hussain Naikoo of Pahlipora. The police indicated that the terrorists belonged to The Resistance Front (TRF), an offshoot of terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba, news agency ANI reported.

Background

The firefight between militants and security forces on Monday evening occurred after a joint team of the police and the army received specific information and launched a search operation in response.

The areas of Tulran and Feeripora, where the militants were neutralised, were cordoned off for the operation.

"During the search operation at Tulran, as the presence of terrorists got ascertained, they were given repeated opportunities to surrender. [However] they fired indiscriminately upon the joint search party, which retaliated, leading to an encounter. Due to darkness, the operation was suspended,” the police said in a statement on Tuesday, as per ANI.

In a separate encounter in Feeripora Shopian, two militants, namely Ubaid Ahmad Dar and Khubaib Ahmad Nengroo, were killed. The two militants had reportedly belonged to LeT.

In the past few days, violence in J&K has led to the many civilians being targeted.

(With inputs from ANI and IANS.)