Militant ambush army convoy, 3 killed and 21 soldiers injured in J

Srinagar, June 29 (UNI) Three people, including a soldier and a militant, were killed and 21 others wounded in two separate insurgency-related incidents in the Kashmir valley overnight.

A police spokesman said militants ambushed an Army convoy near Check Post Mawar at Handwara in the frontier district of Kupwara last evening.

He said 22 soldiers travelling in a bus were wounded in the attack. The injured were admitted to Army base hospital here.

A report from Baramulla said one of the injured soldiers later died on the way to hospital. One boy was also injured in the shootout.

Pakistan-based Lashker-e-Toiba (LeT) has claimed responsibility for the attack on the convoy.

A caller, who identified himself Dr Abdullah Gazvani as spokesman for the outfit, claimed that ten soldiers were killed and 12 others wounded.

Police spokesman said the troops of Rashtriya Rifles (RR) and Special Operation Group (SOG) of Jammu and Kashmir launched a search operation on specific information that some militants were hiding in Banday Mohalla at Handwara late last night.

The area was sealed and a siege was laid to a particular house.

At the break of dawn, security forces challenged the militants, hiding inside the house.

However, the militants opened fire which was returned by the security forces who had taken position in the nearby houses after residents were evacuated to safer places.

One militant was killed, he said.

He said one Shabir Ahmad was kidnapped and later killed by unidentified gunmen at Banihal in Ramban district of the Jammu region this morning.

Police today busted a hideout and recovered two improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and one pistol magazine at Dhar Dhok in Doda district.

UNI