War like stores recovered, ultra killed, two arrested in J and K

Srinagar, Feb 2 (UNI) Security forces gunned down a militant, recovered war like stores and arrested two Lashker-e-Toiba (LeT) ultras while a security force patrol party was attacked in Jammu and Kashmir overnight.

A report from Jammu said a joint team of 46 Rashtriya Rifles (RR) and police launched a search operation in the forest area of Surankote. During the operation militants opened fire which was returned. One ultra was killed in the ensuing gunbattle.

However, the operation was going on when the reports last came in. The house of one Farooq Ahmad was also damaged in the encounter, an official spokesman said.

He said militants attacked a joint patrol party of security forces and police at Khalepora, Handwara, in the frontier district of Kupwara yesterday evening. The fire was returned but the militants managed to escape. No one was injured in the encounter.

He said 53 Battalion BSF, acting on a tip-off about the arms dump, conducted a search operation in the woods at Shikargah in Tral, about 35 km from here, yesterday afternoon.

However, after a long search of the forest area, the BSF troops unearthed a hideout. The arms and ammunition recovered from the specially built hideout included about 12000 rounds of ammunition, five kg of high-quality explosives, a hand grenade, one UBGL, two detonators and two binoculars.

No one was arrested in this connection.

He said searches were conducted by local police at Sopore early this morning on receivin a tip-off that some militants were hiding there.

He said during the operation, two listed militants Mohammad Rafiq and Sajjad of LeT were arrested.

The militants were wanted in a number of militancy-related incidents and were carrying a reward on their heads, he said.

UNI