Two Lashker militants among three killed, IED recovered in J

Srinagar, Jan 13 (UNI) Three persons, including two militants of Pakistan based Lashker-e-Toiba (LeT) were killed while a plan by the ultras to cause blast ahead of the Republic Day was foiled and a large cache of arms and ammunition were recovered in the Jammu and Kashmir overnight.

Official sources said a joint search operation was conducted by Special Operation Group (SOG) of Jammu and Kashmir police and 14 Rashitriya Rifles (RR) at village Sumbler in Bandipora in Baramulla district of north Kashmir early this morning.

However, when the security forces were about to storm a particular house, they came under heavy fire from militants hiding there. The fire was returned, and in the subsequent encounter two militants were killed.

A civilian Bashir Ahmad Lone, son of house ownere Abdul Jabbar was also killed in the clash. Two AK rifles six magazines and 223 rounds of ammunition were recovered from the slain militants.

Sources said in another joint operation, security forces recovered a powerful Improvised Explosive Device (IED) from the house of one Ali Mohammad Tantray at Handwara in the frontier district of Kupwara.

They said militants were planning to detonate the IED ahead of Republic Day to target security forces and cause panic.

Security forces recovered four UBGL grenades and two wireless sets from Cariappa Park in Baramulla town.

They said security fores and police in a joint operaion busted a hideout and recovered a huge cache of arms and ammunition including five AK magazines, 139 AK rounds, two UBGL grenades, six pencil cells, one packet of brown sugar, four blankets and one tarpal in the forest area of Badergund Urpash under police station Ganderbal.

UNI