Two Soldiers Killed, 3 Injured in Encounter With Terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir's Anantnag
Srinagar: Two Army soldiers were killed and three others injured in a fierce gunfight with militants that has been raging in a remote village of Kashmir Valley's southern Anantnag district since Saturday afternoon. Two civilians were reported to have been injured after they were caught in crossfire.
A defence spokesman said here that the gunfight broke out after the security forces laid siege to Alhan village of Anantnag 's Kokernag area and launched an operation to flush out militants hiding there.
The Army's Srinagar-based 15 Corps, the Chinar Corps, wrote on microblogging site 'X' that under Operation Gagarmandu, a joint operation was launched by the Army, J&K police and the CRPF in the general area Kokernag, Anantnag.
Police sources said that five Army jawans were injured in the gunfight and two of them succumbed in a nearby hospital later.
Police sources said that the militants hiding in the wooded hills fired their automatic weapons indiscriminately upon seeing the joint search party approaching them.
Reinforcements from the Army including its Special Forces, J&K police's counterinsurgency Special Operations Group (SOG) and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) have been rushed to the area to track down the militants who were changing their positions as reports last came in.
Meanwhile, one of the injured civilians succumbed in the hospital on Sunday morning. He has been identified as Abdur Rashid Dar.
A report from Kishtwar said that there was a brief exchange of fire between the security forces and militants in Kishtwar 's Paddar Battam Bridge area at around midnight Saturday night. No casualties were reported.
Following the incident, the security forces launched a search operation in the area.
About the clash at Alhan, Kokernag, Srinagar -based defence spokesman Lt. Col. M.K. Sahu has in a signed statement said that the militants currently engaged in a gunfight with the security forces at the hills of south Kashmir are the same group of terrorists involved in a series of terror attacks that took place in the Kishtwar - Doda region of J&K recently.
He said, "It had been earlier confirmed through human and electronic means on August 5, 2024 that terrorists responsible for atrocities and incidents in the Doda region in the month of July had sneaked across the Kishtwar range into the Kapran Garol area of South Kashmir. Rashtriya Rifles and J&K police have ever since relentlessly tracked these terrorists and precise operations were launched on the night of August 9-10 in the area east of Kapran, in the mountains, where these terrorists were reportedly holed up."
He added, " Suspicious movement was observed at approximately 1400 hours on August 10 and on being challenged, the terrorists immediately responded to by indiscriminate, desperate and reckless firing from in which two Army personnel and two civilians, in the vicinity were injured. The terror antecedents of the injured civilians are being ascertained. The area is above 10,000 feet in high altitude, has thick under growth, large boulders, Nallahs and re-entrants that pose a serious challenge to operations. Security forces are moving deliberately and are in the process of hunting down the terrorists. Operations will progress through the night."
In September last year, a commanding officer and a Major of the Indian Army and a deputy superintendent of the J&K police were killed and a security personnel injured in a fierce gun battle with militants in Kokernag area that falls in close proximity of the Kishtwar-Doda region of the Jammu region which has witnessed a spike in terror attacks in the recent weeks.
