A commandant of the Indian Army was killed and four soldiers were seriously wounded in a gun battle between separatist Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) guerrillas and security forces in a north Kashmir village yesterday. Acting on specific information, troops of the counter-insurgency Rashtriya Rifles (RR) surrounded a house in north Kashmir's Tilgam village near Pattan town in Baramulla district in the morning, a senior police officer said here yesterday. "There are two to three militants of LeT including a top commander of the outfit holed up inside the house. We have deployed more troops to ensure they don't escape from the village hideout," a senior police officer said here.
"G S Sarna, commandant 29 RR, led the raiding party and as they tried to enter the house, militants fired a sharp burst critically injuring Sarna and his four body guards," said the officer. "The injured were evacuated to the Srinagar army base hospital for treatment where the commandant succumbed to his injuries," he said. Security sources here said the house owner, identified as Muhammad Maqbool Dar, was also injured in the exchange of fire. |