Militant killed, joint combing ops launched in Samba

Acting on information provided by some villagers about the heavily armed militants in army uniform roaming close to the formation at Ding Ambh region in Samba district, troops cordoned off the area at around 0705 hours, defence sources said.

Ding Ambh area is about 2 to 3 km from the spot of Kaili Mandi gun-battle on Sunday in which 8 persons, including a photo journalist, two militants, were killed and 15 others injured. One militant is believed to have escaped during Sunday's encounter.

The heavily armed militant fired on the troops who were conducting search operation, sources said adding the encounter continued till 0920 hours.

Security forces have intercepted a message exchanged among terrorists which revealed that the slain militants belonged to a new outfit called Al-Meran, they said.

Operation is still continuing and security forces are looking for another militant who was seen in the nearby forest belt.

The slain militants were suspected to be part of the group of terrorists which infiltrated after a fire fight with BSF in Benglard border outpost on Indo-Pak border on Friday, they said.