Army officer, a soldier and 4 Lashker militants killed in Kashmir

Srinagar, Mar 20 (UNI) An Army captain, a soldier and four militants of Pakistan based Lashker-e-Toiba (LeT) were killed in a fierce encounter in the frontier district of Kupwara in north Kashmir today.

Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP, Kupwara, Vijay Kumar said troops of 18 Rashtriya Rifles (RR), two Para and Special Operation Group (SOG) of Jammu and Kashmir police launched a joint operation at Chuntimarg-Anderbugh, Loalab in the frontier district of Kupwara early this morning.

When the security forces were about to storm a particular house, they came under heavy fire from militants. The fire was returned and three LeT militants were killed.

Mr Kumar said an army captain of 2 Para and his guard were also killed and another soldier wounded in the encounter.

A defence ministry spokesman confirming that three militants were killed said ''we also suffered a casualty.'' He said another militant of the same group, who managed to escape from the cordoned off area, was later killed by security forces at Anderbugh.

He said one of the slain militant was identified as Abu Hurara.

Four ak and other arms and ammunition were also recovered from the slain militants.

UNI