Five militants, JCO, 3 soldiers killed in J

Jammu/Srinagar, Oct 10 (UNI) Five militants and four Army personnel, including a Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO), were killed while security forces busted a hideout and apprehended an ultra in Jammu and Kashmir overnight, an official spokesman said today.

Giving details about the fierce gun-battle in Poonch district, an Army spokesman said in Jammu that on receiving information about presence of militants in Chamraid-Andarwali Dhoke area of Surankote tehsil this morning, troops of 25 Rashtriya Rifles (RR) and 16 RR cordoned off the area to track down the ultras.

As the troops launched the search operation, militants hiding in the area opened heavy gunfire on them which was effectively retaliated. In the ensuing gun-battle, a self-styled area commander of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), Abu Jabran alias Abu Ali, was killed, he added.

A JCO and three soldiers also laid down their lives in the fierce gunfight, the spokesman said.

The operation was on when report last came in and reinforcements have been rushed to the area, he added.

The spokesman said one more militant was killed by the security forces in an encounter, that raged for several hours since last night, at Nallah Ban in Poonch district of Jammu region taking the total number of ultras killed in the gun-battle to four. Three militants had been killed last night, he added.

One AK rifle, nine magazines, 7 hand grenades, one pistol, two magazines and two wireless sets were seized from the encounter site.

Security forces and the Jammu and Kashmir police busted a militant hideout at Marhote under the Surankote Police station in Poonch district last evening and seized four kg of explosives, five detonators and one remote mobile circuit box.

Security forces during a search operation at Bonagam village in Devsar area of south Kashmir district of Anantnag apprehended a militant along with one AK rifle, four magazines and 105 rounds last evening.

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