KONS: Two Harkat-ul-Jehad militants were killed and a residential house gutted during a prolonged encounter in Shopyan outskirts on Monday while a group of militants gave the security forces the slip in a Lolab village where a house was destroyed in an exchange of fire. The encounter in the Chak Tscholan area of Shopyan erupted after militantÂ’s holed up in a residential house opened heavy fire on troops who had been following them from the Harmain village.
SOG personnel from the Gagran and Imam Sahib camps together with 62 RR and 166 CRPF, who had been stalking the militants after a tip-off, sealed off the area just as they (the militants) took shelter in house, reports said. Heavy firing from the militants sparked off a fierce exchange of fire lasting for five hours during which troops used mortar shells to blast the house, the police the police said. The bodies of two militants were retrieved from the debris later, it said.According to the police, the slain militants belonged to the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen group, and one of them was identified as Salman Bhai of Pakistan. Two identity cards, bearing the names Basheer Ahmad Mir of Parmari, Kupwara and Ghulam Hassan Khan of Aargam, Bandipur, were said to have been recovered from the militants. Two AK rifles, five magazines, ammunition and a diary were retrieved from the scene of the encounter, the police said.
A group of militants hiding in a residential house in the Pattu Shahi area of Lolab, managed to slip through a security cordon after engaging surrounding troops in a fierce gunfight on Sunday night, reports said. Troops had asked the besieged militants to surrender, but the latter had turned down the offer and launched an attack during which they escaped.
Gunfire was heard in the Chatragam area in Shopyan during an army crackdown of the village and adjacent localities today. Details of the search operation were not available, but the cordon was in place when reports last came in. Meanwhile, the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen has claimed responsibility for SundayÂ’s IED blast at the Tengpora by-pass in Batmalu.