In a major success, the Jammu and Kashmir Police and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) on Monday claimed to have killed three militants, including two belonging to Lashkar-e-Toiba’s fidayeen (suicide squad), in a fierce gun

battle in south Kashmir. A woman was also killed in the encounter that lasted for several hours.

This is the second major success for the security forces in the past seven days. A few days ago, the Army and the state police had killed two top LeT and Hizbul Mujahideen commanders in north Kashmir. Lashkar commander Pasha and the Hizb’s district commander were killed at Baniyari, an island village inside the Wular lake.

“We have killed three militants,” Awantipora SP Bashir Ahmad Khan said. “Two of them were potential fidayeen.” Police said the fidayeen were planning suicide attacks in Srinagar and had infiltrated into Kashmir recently.

On Monday morning, the police received specific inputs about the presence of militants at Amlar Tral and a joint team of J-K police and CRPF cordoned off the area. As the police launched search operations, the militants came out in the open and opened indiscriminate fire on the security personnel. “In the initial militant attack, two CRPF men were injured,” SP Khan said. “A woman was also injured in the militant fire”. The woman, Taja Begum, later succumbed to injuries.

Soon after the militant fire, police and CRPF had to temporarily halt operations to evacuate civilians trapped inside to safety. The encounter, which was launched at 6.15 am, ended at 12.30 pm with the killing of all three militants, two of whom were from Pakistan. The police identified the slain militants as Abu Dujana and Abu Zahid of Pakistan, and Mehraj-ud-din, a resident of Pastuna village in Tral.

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