Army officer, soldier and 4 Lashker militants killed in J and K

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

Elsewhere in the state, security forces and police arrested eight Lashker-e-Toiba (LeT) militants and recovered some arms and ammunition during the past 24 hours.

Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP, Kupwara, Vijay Kumar said that 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 Harshan R of 2 Para and another soldier L/naik Bhawan Singh were also killed and another jawan was wounded in the encounter.

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 the slain militants were identified as Abdul Rehman, batallion commander, Mushtaq Ahmad Ganie, Reyaz Ahmad and Haji Abu Hurira.

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

A police spokesman said police in Srinagar arrested two militants of LeT Tariq Ahmad Baba, alias Kamil, and Manzoor Ahmad Dar along with some arms and ammunition today while six others were nabbed at Sopore yesterday.

He said they were providing hideouts and arms and ammunition to LeT militants in the city.

Yesterday security forces on an information provided by police arrested six LeT militants at Sopore in Baramulla district of north Kashmir. Two hand grenades were recovered from their possession.

The militants were identified as Aijaz Ahmad Ganie, Firdous Ahmad Ganie, Sajad Ahmad Kana, Suhail Nabi Darzi, Asif Iqbal Shah and Mohammad Aslam Najar. Six hand grenades have been recovered from their possession.

UNI