Militant killed in Pulwama gunfight

Srinagar: A separatist militant has been killed in a gunfight with the security forces in the Kashmir Valley’s southern Pulwama district. At least, two militants are believed to have been holed up in Pulwama’s Aarihal village following the security forces moved in to launch a cordon-and-search-operation on Thursday evening.

“The encounter is underway. One terrorist has been neutralised,” a police official said, adding that the slain man’s identity is being ascertained.

A report from Pulwama said that the operation at Aarihal was launched by a joint team of the J&K police, the Army and the CRPF on specific input about the presence of militants in the village, 35-km from capital Srinagar.

Meanwhile, the J&K police on Thursday claimed that a module of proscribed Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and its “offshoot” The Resistance Front (TRF) operating from the Tutigund forest area in the Handwara region of frontier Kupwara district has been busted in a joint operation conducted with the Army and the CRPF.

A police spokesman said arms were recovered from the forested area on the disclosure of “terror associates” Pervaiz Ahmad Dar and Showkat Ahmad Shergujri, both local residents.