One holed up militant killed, one person injured in Kashmir

Srinagar, Jan 20 (UNI) One of the Lashker-e-Toiba (LeT) militants, holed up in a house at Handwara, was killed while one person wounded in a grenade blast at Sopore in north Kashmir.

A defence ministry spokesman said troops of 30 and 22 Rashtriya Rifles (RR) and Special Operation Group (SOG) of Jammu and Kashmir police launched a joint operation at Mandigam village, Handwara, in the frontier district of Kupwara today.

Militants later entered the house of one Mushtaq Ahmad Mir after a brief encounter with troops.

Later, reinforcements were rushed to the area from nearby camps and the cordon around the particular house was further tightened after all civilians were rescued.

Militants continued firing on troops when they were asked to surrender, he said adding one of the militant was killed and the operation was still going on.

He said the militants belongs to Pakistan based LeT.

Official sources said militants hurled a hand grenade towards a security force patrol party at main market Sopore, about 55 km from here in Baramulla district. However, it missed the intended target and exploded on the roadside injuring a pedestrian identified as Abdul Rashid Marazi. 'The injured was hospitalised, the sources said, adding that the police later conducted search operation in the area but militants managed to escape.

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