In a combined counter-insurgency operation, troops of 11 Rashtriya Rifles and the Jammu and Kashmir Police on Friday gunned down three Harkat-ul-Jehadi Islami (HuJI) terrorists, including a top commander, involved in the killing of five BRO officials in Kishtwar district in June this year.

Official sources said that the joint operation was conducted in Chhatroo - the same area where these militants had killed the BRO officials, including Lt Col Ajay Verma, an Assistant Executive Engineer S K Singh, two PSOs, and the vehicle driver, at Watsar.

The team had gone to inspect the under-construction Chatroo-Sinthantop road, a link to Anantnag in the Valley and envisaged as an alternative road link between Doda-Kishtwar districts and the Valley. They were on their way back to Chatroo from Kishtwar when they were ambushed at Watsar.

The slain militants were identified as Saifullah, resident of Dachan, Mohammad Akbar Chichi and Shabir Ahmed, both residents of Bondana village, all part of the Chhatroo area of Kishtwar district. Of these three, Saifullah, who was active in the Chhatroo area for the last six years had been operating as HUJI’s tehsil commander, said Inspector General of Police, Jammu zone, K Rajendra Kumar.