Three terrorists gunned down in Baramulla encounter

Srinagar:Three separatist militants were killed in a gunbattle with the security forces in Chak Tappar village of Jammu and Kashmir's northwestern Baramulla district on Saturday.

The officials said that the firefight broke out on Friday night, hours after the Army's 29 Rashtriya Rifles, J&K police's counterinsurgency Special Operations Group (SOG), the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and the Seema Shastra Bal (SSB) had launched a cordon-and-search operation at Chak Tappar to flush out militants who were hiding in the village.

The operation was, however, suspended around midnight to avoid collateral damage, a police official said. He added: “At first light on Saturday, the security forces launched a final assault on the terrorists holed up in the besieged precincts, leading to their elimination, and with that, the guns fell silent.”

Commander of the Army’s 10 Sector Rashtriya Rifles Brigadier Sanjay Kannoth, while briefing the media, however, said that the militants continued with incessant heavy firing on the security forces throughout the night, which was effectively countered.

“The operation continued in the morning when our troops, in a very professional manner, engaged the terrorists and neutralised them without any collateral damage to civilian life and property,” he said, adding that the identities of the slain are being ascertained.

The officer termed the slain men as “hardcore terrorists” and their killing a “significant success” ahead of the J&K Assembly elections. “This operation assumes importance and is a notable success for the security forces and a disruption of nefarious Pakistani design in the Kashmir Valley,” he said.

A report from the frontier town of Rajouri said that an Army jawan was injured while he and his colleagues were foiling an infiltration bid by a group of militants from across the Line of Control (LoC) in the Nowshera sector on Saturday.

The officials said that the militants tried to sneak into the Kalal area of the Nowshera sector after breaching the LoC fence but were soon confronted by the alert Indian troops, leading to a clash between the two sides. The infiltrators fled back into Pakistani territory after the exchange of fire with the Indian troops, they added.

Earlier on the intervening night of September 8 and 9, the Army, together with the J&K police, had killed two infiltrators soon after they sneaked into the Lam sector of J&K's Nowshera area. The Army had claimed that a large quantity of 'war-like' stores, including two AK 47 rifles and a pistol, were found on the slain infiltrators.

Meanwhile, Army's Northern Command chief Lt. Gen. M.V. Suchindra Kumar paid tribute to the supreme sacrifice to Naib Subedar Vipan Kumar and Sepoy Arvind Singh, who were killed in a gunbattle with militants in eastern Kishtwar district on Friday.

The security forces comprising the men from the Army and J&K police clashed with a heavily equipped group of militants in Kishtwar's Chattru area on Friday, leaving four Army jawans injured. Two of them, including a Junior Commissioned Officer, succumbed to the injuries at a military hospital later, a defence spokesman said.

The encounter took place a day before Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the Chenab Valley, comprising Kishtwar, Doda and Ramban districts, to address an election rally being organised by the BJP on Saturday.

A statement issued by the Northern Command in the garrison town of Udhampur said that Lt. Gen. Kumar expressed support on his and the Army's behalf for the families of the slain soldiers, saying, “Dhruva Command stands firm with the bereaved families in this hour of grief.”

The General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the Nagrota (Jammu)-based White Knight Corps (16 Corps) also conveyed his deepest condolences to the kin of the slain soldiers, honouring their "courage and sacrifice".

A spokesman of the White Knight Corps had said on Friday that an operation based on the intelligence inputs was jointly launched by the Army and the J&K police in the Shah Pursal area of Chattru early Friday.

“A contact was established with the terrorists at 3.30 pm (Friday). In the ensuing firefight, four Army personnel have been injured,” the spokesman had said, adding that the operation is in progress.

On September 11, the Indian Army had gunned down two militants in a firefight that broke out in the Khandara top area of Udhampur district soon after the security forces moved in after learning about the presence of a heavily armed group of militants there.