Major dies, many hurt in 2 attacks: Strikes take place after intel alerts

SRINAGAR: An Army Major was killed and four other soldiers, including an officer of the same rank, were injured in a gunfight with militants in Jammu and Kashmir’s southern Anantnag district on Monday.

One militant was also killed in the clash in Bidoora village of Anantnag’s Acchabal area, the officials said. Elsewhere, six Army soldiers and two civilian passersby were injured in an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) blast in neighbouring Pulwama district on Monday evening.

The police officials said that the militants triggered the IED blast at Aarihal as an Army ALS (Ashok Leyland Stallion 4x4 truck) drove through this village of Pulwama at around 6 pm. They said that the militants also opened fire at the vehicle, before fleeing from the scene.

Six jawans of the 44 Rashtriya Rifles on board and two civilians were injured, they said adding that the condition of three of soldiers is stated to be critical.
The officials said Major Ketan Sharma was killed and three other soldiers, including an officer, were injured in a fire fight that broke out in Anantnag’s Bidoora village early Monday after the Army’s 19 Rashtriya Rifles, Jammu & Kashmir police’s counterinsurgency Special Operations Group (SOG) and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) laid siege.

The encounter at Bidoora and the attack on the Army vehicle at Aarihal took place a day after the authorities sounded a security high alert in the Valley  in the light of intelligence information reportedly shared by Pakistani officials with Indian High Commission in Islamabad and the Americans over threat of a possible major militant attack  in south Kashmir.

The Pakistani authorities have said the militants have planned a major strike most likely in Awantipora area of Pulwama district to avenge the killing of militant commander Zakir Musa, a media report had said on Sunday.

Zakir Rashid Bhat alias Zakir Musa, who headed the Al Qaeda’s India cell Ansar Gazwat-ul- Hind, was killed in a gunfight with security forces in Dadasara village of Tral area in Pulwama district on May 24.

Soon after the fighting broke out at Bidoora, the authorities snapped internet facility in the entire Anantnag district “as a precautionary measure.” A report from the Valley’s second largest town (after Srinagar) said that clashes broke out between surging crowds and security forces around the encounter site. The security forces fired pellet shotguns and teargas canisters to quell stone-pelting mobs in the village.

Two days ago, Anantnag had witnessed a militant fidayeen or suicide attack on the security forces, leaving five CRPF jawans and a J&K police officer killed and three other security personnel injured.

The officials said that Inspector Arshad Ahmed Khan who served as Station House Officer (SHO) of Anantnag’s Saddar police station and was injured in the June 12 attack on the security forces along Anantnag’s Khanabal-Pahalgam Road died in Delhi’s All INdia Institute of Medical Sciences where he had been shifted from a hospital for specialised treatment. Khan had received a bullet in his chest in the militant attack and ensuing brief encounter during which one of the assailants was also killed.